GGs,

Still perusing my tool chest, I'm trying to learn what might have been 
stored in this little tray. http://billwebber.galootcentral.com/1809-029.JPG

The tray goes with a till drawer containing drilling/boring tools. 
http://billwebber.galootcentral.com/1803-069.JPG

I'm thinking gimlets.  There are four recesses that look like they would 
be handles for gimlets, but there are places for 6 tools.  So, while I 
thought I had a good idea, I'm perplexed by the lack of handle space for 
the other two tools.  Any thoughts?

I took a picture of the tray with some gimlet bits. 
http://billwebber.galootcentral.com/1809-030.JPG

If you mentally turn the bits around, replace the auger chuck end with a 
wooden handle, you get an idea where I was going.  It wouldn't take much 
to make gimlets out of these auger bits, but I still don't know what to 
put in the other two spaces.

TIA

Bill W.
Nottingham, PA
Woodworkers visit me at http://billwebber.galootcentral.com/

On Mon, Oct 15, 2018 at 9:47 AM Bill Webber  wrote:

>
> Still perusing my tool chest, I'm trying to learn what might have been
> stored in this little tray.
> http://billwebber.galootcentral.com/1809-029.JPG
>
> The tray goes with a till drawer containing drilling/boring tools.
> http://billwebber.galootcentral.com/1803-069.JPG
>
>
No idea what goes into your tray, that is a nice double stack sneaking in
around the brace pad.  Someone did some nice work on that


-- 
Kirk Eppler in Half Moon Bay, CA, where we survived another year of the
Bumpkin Festival

I only have one wooden handled gimlet.  The handle is not quite 
cylindrical, being slightly thicker at the center where the metal 
protrudes ever so slightly.  If a handle designed like this were 
installed in this tray it might leave a tiny mark where the metal rubs 
the partitions.

There are, in fact, six small marks on the partitions.  One on the 
right, one on the left, and two on both side of the center partition.

Tool 1. The biggest handle, rightmost, would have been close to 3-inches 
long, with a diameter of about .830.  That is deeper than the tray 
because there is a wood strip added underneath and has been hollowed out.

Tool 2. The next handle is to the right of the center partition with a 
formed recess 2.25 long, diameter about .750.  The bottom panel has been 
hollowed out here also.

Tool 3. The next handle is to the left of the center partition with a 
shaped recess 2.25 long, diameter .650.

Tool 4. The next handle on the extreme left of the tray has a shaped 
recess 1.90 long, max diameter .650

Tools 5&6. The last two handles would have been above Tools 2&3 and 
would have been no longer than 1.5 inches long and diameter of .500.  
Nothing here to indicate shape.

So, has anyone seen a gimlet handle as small as those last two?

Bill W.
Nottingham, PA
Woodworkers visit me at http://billwebber.galootcentral.com/

Bill,

Would this tradesman have used gravers or small carving tools with “half
mushroom” handles? That is, mushroom handles with one side cut away to form a
“flat”? (Prevents them from rolling too far.)

Note that this is presented in the form of a question! I really don’t know.

I’ve thought highly of this chest from the moment it was first unveiled on the
Porch!

John Ruth

Sent from my iPhone

Hi Bill,

At an auction, I recently bought a large number of wooden handled gimlets
from a now-defunct museum. In that lot of gimlets, some 40 in all, there
are gimlets that would meet or nearly meet your dimensional criteria of
less than 1.5" in length and 1/2" in diameter. I seem to be having trouble
with my Galoot Image Central account but I will endeavor to make pictures
of the gimlets available to you later tonight.

Zach
--
Zachary Dillinger
517-231-3374

Mr. Hilton was a pattern maker, so yes I think he likely used gravers 
and small carving tools.  There are a few in the chest. However the flat 
you are referring to is generally seen on conventional carving tools, 
handle in line with the blade. Whatever went in this tray had a handle 
at right angles to the tool; it couldn't roll anyway.

Thanks...

Bill W.
Nottingham, PA
Woodworkers visit me at http://billwebber.galootcentral.com/

Poor form again, continuing my own discussion, but...  Mr. Hilton was 
consistent in the way he made his dividers and partitions for his 
tools.  Specifically, if the tool was round, his dividers were round. If 
the tool had square shanks, the dividers were square or rectangular.  So 
the tool is just as likely something with a square or rectangular shank 
and not a gimlet at all.

Bill W.
Nottingham, PA
Woodworkers visit me at http://billwebber.galootcentral.com/

On 2018-10-15 1:31 PM, Bill Webber wrote:
> Poor form again, continuing my own discussion, but...  Mr. Hilton was 
> consistent in the way he made his dividers and partitions for his 
> tools.  Specifically, if the tool was round, his dividers were round. 
> If the tool had square shanks, the dividers were square or 
> rectangular.  So the tool is just as likely something with a square or 
> rectangular shank and not a gimlet at all.
>
> Bill W. 


Is it likely he had a mixed set of larger wooden-handled and smaller 
metal-handled gimlets like these?

https://www.garrettwade.com/set-of-seven-steel-twist-gimlets-gp.html

Don

-- 
Nullius in verba  ( Take nobody’s word. )
motto of the Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge

“The information we consume matters just as much as the food we put in our body.
It affects our
thinking, our behavior, how we understand our place in the world. And how we
understand others.” — Evan Williams

I have a set like that, and no they won't fit.  The handles are too wide 
and the way they are wrapped makes the shank too wide. Keep trying :-)

Bill W.
Nottingham, PA
Woodworkers visit me at http://billwebber.galootcentral.com/

I was wondering if could be for depth gauges with different sized and 
shaped bases? Seems like something a pattern maker would need a quantity 
of and I don't recall seeing any in the other photos.

Troy

Hi Troy,

Nice idea, but I think depth gauges have a flat sided base, whereas 
whatever goes in the recesses here is a rounded handle, perhaps base, of 
some kind.

Bill W.
Nottingham, PA
Woodworkers visit me at http://billwebber.galootcentral.com/

Problem mostly solved.  Thanks Zach.

http://billwebber.galootcentral.com/1810-017.JPG

Bill W.
Nottingham, PA
Woodworkers visit me at http://billwebber.galootcentral.com/

> Problem mostly solved.  Thanks Zach.
> http://billwebber.galootcentral.com/1810-017.JPG

Beautiful looking tools and storage, Bill.
I'm puzzled now by the amount of apparently wasted space in the chest. Were
the gimlets used so often, relative to small bits driven by augers, that
the open array is warranted?

Hi Curt,

I wouldn't presume to comment on how often any of the tools were used.  
This little tray is probably the least densely populated area in the 
entire chest.  I'm thinking gimlets are pretty difficult to store in a 
flat area.  No matter how you arrange them, I think they take up a lot 
of real estate.  Line them up on a board with holes and at first glance 
that seems more compact but the rectangle formed is quite large.  Hey, I 
just gave me an idea; there is an open area under the tills that might 
take some gimlets. :-) Thanks...

Bill W.
Nottingham, PA
Woodworkers visit me at http://billwebber.galootcentral.com/