More Awls

[HandyDan]

I took some brass candle sticks to the metal lathe and made some ferrules and went to town on some Mahogany furniture legs that I had salvaged some time ago. For the metal points I used pieces of commercial peg board hooks. They were 12" long and I cut 6" off a bunch of them and tapered the cut off pieces at the lathe. They commercial peg board hooks are hard so they don't bend under the weight of the merchandise. The ferrules are a press fit onto the body and the metal points are a press fit into the brass and the wood. One of them is designed to be what is called a bird cage awl.

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I made a few smaller ones too. They are appx. 4" overall. I put a larger one on the left in the picture for comparison. The one to the right is done with a sharpened drill bit. Because of the flutes it didn't sharpen well. I think it was a 9/64" bit and believe a 1/4" or larger bit would be better. The middle one is a piece of a spring link saved from a shoe brake system on a pickup truck. The left one is an allen wrench with the "L" cut off. I sharpened these up at the grinder and used cut off .300 Winchester magnum bullet casings for the ferrules and made them press fits as the others.

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[Nickp]

Beautiful...and what a great way to make use of "non-typical" materials. Love the idea of using the bullet brass as a ferrule...

[Herb Stoops]

Great job,Dan, and good use of used materials too.
Herb

[Cherryville Chuck]

Spring steel would be hard to turn I would think. Did you chuck them and then grind to a point? I like the idea of using spent brass for ferrules. That made me think that shotgun brass would make good ferrules for larger tools like chisels and gouges.

[Herb Stoops]

I like brass,reminds me of all the hours in the Army polishing my brass............
And all the hours polishing my brass fishing spoons....
Herb

[tomp]

There are some really nice pieces there. Saw this on Pinterest today, looked like an interesting way to dress up the handle rather than a ferrule.

Tool Handle Trim.jpg

Think I have some 45/70 brass lying around, may give that a try. As far as using 12 ga shells for ferrules, do some come in heavier sections than others? I ask because I can probably scrounge some from the trash cans at the range, although most are probably from light trap loads.

[Cherryville Chuck]

There are some really nice pieces there. Saw this on Pinterest today, looked like an interesting way to dress up the handle rather than a ferrule.

Tool Handle Trim.jpg

Think I have some 45/70 brass lying around, may give that a try. As far as using 12 ga shells for ferrules, do some come in heavier sections than others? I ask because I can probably scrounge some from the trash cans at the range, although most are probably from light trap loads.

The trap loads usually have pretty short brass. 3" or 3 1/2" should be good. Know any duck hunters? They might have some of the longer ones.

[tomp]

Thanks Chuck, I'll have to check around. Shot my last deer with a (copper) rifled slug, will have to see whether I held onto the empty hull or (horrors) threw it away. A quick check shows that the body of the 12 ga hull is just a little less than 13/16" which may be a little large for what I want to do - I've got a birdcage (square) awl shaft that's 1/4" diameter and this may be a little out of proportion, even with the larger handle I have planned because I have problems holding on to the smaller ones as my arthritis worsens - may be worth looking at the 45/70 for that one. I like a handle that's shaped kind of like a light bulb, easier to get a grip with the palm rather than just the fingertips. At one time, Brownells (gunsmith supplies) sold unhandled bits and handles so you could add the handle of your choice to the shank - just drill an undersize hole in the handle, heat up the shank and push it into the plastic - I have one I made many years ago that has the magnetic socket to takes 1/4" hex bit. It has a bright fluorescent yellow handle which makes it easy to spot - unfortunately they don't appear to sell them any more.

[Cherryville Chuck]

Young teens might be shooting a .410 at a range. they have decently long brass but that should be smaller than the 45-70. The 45-70 would need shortening but it appears to have a straight walled casing so a tube cutter should do the job. I agree with you that the bulb shaped handle is easier to hold and allows it to be used easily and accurately with one hand where precision work with a long handled tool is easier two handed when you have arthritis like that. I quite literally feel your pain on that one.

[HandyDan]

Spring steel would be hard to turn I would think. Did you chuck them and then grind to a point? I like the idea of using spent brass for ferrules. That made me think that shotgun brass would make good ferrules for larger tools like chisels and gouges.

They are thin to begin with so I didn't taper them. I did as you said, chucked them in the drill and took them to the grinder and then the belt sander with 180 grit paper.

[Herb Stoops]

I would think that ammo has a thicker brass than some of the screwdrivers and other hand tools do now.
Herb

[Cherryville Chuck]

I would think that ammo has a thicker brass than some of the screwdrivers and other hand tools do now.
Herb

And probably with higher tensile strength. It has to withstand some fairly high pressures . There are different grades of brass and I don't know where typical ferrules would fall into the range between soft and hard.