Gimlets (Tools)
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- Work cat.: 2004273502: Roger, Robert E. A guide to gimlets, 2003:p. 2 (Gimlets: tools that employ a cutting edge or edges to slice round holes in wood or other material using a one-handed twisting motion)
- Wikipedia, Mar. 24, 2009(A gimlet is a hand tool for drilling small holes, mainly in wood, without splitting; similar to an auger)
- Audels carpenters and builders guide, viewed Mar. 24, 2009(Gimlets are for boring small holes by hand pressure, though the bit form of gimlet is used in a brace being adapted to heavier and quicker boring than the gimlet which has a handle; there are two kinds of gimlet: 1, twist, and 2, plain or shell; extra large gimlets (1/4 to 1/2 in. diam.) are called auger gimlets)
A gimlet is a hand tool for drilling small holes, mainly in wood, without splitting. It was defined in Joseph Gwilt's Architecture (1859) as "a piece of steel of a semi-cylindrical form, hollow on one side, having a cross handle at one end and a worm or screw at the other". A gimlet is always a small tool. A similar tool of larger size is called an auger. The cutting action of the gimlet is slightly different from an auger and the initial hole it makes is smaller; the cutting edges pare away the wood, which is moved out by the spiral sides, falling out through the entry hole. This also pulls the gimlet further into the hole as it is turned. Unlike a bradawl, pressure is not required once the tip has been drawn in. The name gimlet comes from the Old French guinbelet, guimbelet, later guibelet, probably a diminutive of the Anglo-French wimble, a variation of "guimble", from the Middle Low German wiemel (cf. the Scandinavian wammie, 'to bore or twist'). Modern French uses the term vrille, also the French for "tendril".
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