I am the very proud owner of a Thompson Bird cage awl.    It is indeed
something to covet. A wonderful tool.  It has a T handle and fits my big
mitts. Thanks again James. May the grain be with you.

On Thursday, December 18, 2014, JAMES THOMPSON  wrote:

> Shortly after I made my copy of Scott Grandstaff’s perfect handle birdcage
> awl, I found 3 more junk perfect handle screwdrivers for almost nothing,
> and bought them for the purpose of making more awls.
>
> I learned something while doing this. It is quite difficult to do the
> grinding on a bench grinder. I used a cheapie Horror Fright disc grinder on
> the shaping part while the screwdrivers were held fast in my vise. This
> makes the main part of the grinding go a lot faster. Then I went to the
> bench grinder for the final grinding. By the way, the flats on the blade
> are the reference surfaces to grind the other 2 sides square. Adjust the
> tool rest to get a square grind while you hold the flat on the tool rest.
>
> Of course, the grinding process ruins the temper of the tool, so I had to
> re-harden and temper each one.
>
> Making the scales: I learned that a piece of white paper held on the
> handle and rubbed with a dirty finger gives me a good pattern. I cut out
> the papers and glued them to the wood for the scales. When dry, I cut the
> scales out on the bandsaw. Then used my stationary disc sander to grind
> them to fit. They are still flat at this point. Now I epoxy one in place,
> then drill the holes. Now I epoxy the other one and drill the remaining
> holes in the other scale. It’s easy to lose the hole location if you put
> both scales on at once.
>
> Now to the vise to hold the tool while I rasp off what isn’t needed, then
> sand and polish. The last thing I do is put in the cutlery rivets. See the
> picture:
>
> December182014 | 102358420595488787966
> <https://picasaweb.google.com/102358420595488787966/December182014?au
thuser=0&feat=directlink">https://picasaweb.google.com/102358420595488787966/Dec
ember182014?authuser=0&feat=directlink>
>
> Of course I do not need 4 of these tools. I plan to use 3 of them for
> gifts, provided I can find some people I like well enough to give them to.
> :>)
>
>
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