Gimlet (tool)

Last updated
Gimlet - tool.jpg
BlueGimlet.JPG
Two 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". [1]

Contents

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 farther 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". [2]

Use as a metaphor

The term is also used figuratively to describe something as sharp or piercing, and also to describe the twisting, boring motion of using a gimlet. For example, the gimlet cocktail may be named after the tool. [3] The term gimlet-eyed can mean sharp-eyed or squint-eyed; one example of this use is Major General Smedley Darlington Butler, who was known as "Old Gimlet Eye".

Further reading

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chisel</span> Tool for cutting and carving

A chisel is a tool with a characteristically shaped cutting edge of blade on its end; for carving or cutting a hard material such as wood, stone, or metal by hand, struck with a mallet, or mechanical power. The handle and blade of some types of chisel are made of metal or wood with a sharp edge in it.

A saw is a tool consisting of a tough blade, wire, or chain with a hard toothed edge used to cut through material. Various terms are used to describe toothed and abrasive saws.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Drill</span> Tool used to create holes

A drill is a tool used for making round holes or driving fasteners. It is fitted with a bit, either a drill or driver chuck. Hand-operated types are dramatically decreasing in popularity and cordless battery-powered ones proliferating due to increased efficiency and ease of use.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Machining</span> Material-removal process; manufacturing process

Machining is a process in which a material is cut to a desired final shape and size by a controlled material-removal process. The methods that have this common theme are collectively called subtractive manufacturing, which utilizes machine tools, in contrast to additive manufacturing, which uses controlled addition of material.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Drill bit</span> Type of cutting tool

Drill bits are cutting tools used in a drill to remove material to create holes, almost always of circular cross-section. Drill bits come in many sizes and shapes and can create different kinds of holes in many different materials. In order to create holes drill bits are usually attached to a drill, which powers them to cut through the workpiece, typically by rotation. The drill will grasp the upper end of a bit called the shank in the chuck.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Drilling</span> Cutting process that uses a drill bit to cut a circular hole into the workpiece

Drilling is a cutting process where a drill bit is spun to cut a hole of circular cross-section in solid materials. The drill bit is usually a rotary cutting tool, often multi-point. The bit is pressed against the work-piece and rotated at rates from hundreds to thousands of revolutions per minute. This forces the cutting edge against the work-piece, cutting off chips (swarf) from the hole as it is drilled.

A reamer is a type of rotary cutting tool used in metalworking. Precision reamers are designed to enlarge the size of a previously formed hole by a small amount but with a high degree of accuracy to leave smooth sides. There are also non-precision reamers which are used for more basic enlargement of holes or for removing burrs. The process of enlarging the hole is called reaming. There are many different types of reamer and they may be designed for use as a hand tool or in a machine tool, such as a milling machine or drill press.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Woodturning</span> Craft

Woodturning is the craft of using a wood lathe with hand-held tools to cut a shape that is symmetrical around the axis of rotation. Like the potter's wheel, the wood lathe is a mechanism that can generate a variety of forms. The operator is known as a turner, and the skills needed to use the tools were traditionally known as turnery. In pre-industrial England, these skills were sufficiently difficult to be known as "the mysteries of the turners' guild." The skills to use the tools by hand, without a fixed point of contact with the wood, distinguish woodturning and the wood lathe from the machinist's lathe, or metal-working lathe.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Self-tapping screw</span> Type of screw

A self-tapping screw is a screw that can tap its own hole as it is driven into the material. More narrowly, self-tapping is used only to describe a specific type of thread-cutting screw intended to produce a thread in relatively soft material or sheet materials, excluding wood screws. Other specific types of self-tapping screw include self-drilling screws and thread rolling screws.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Drilling rig</span> Integrated system to drill wells

A drilling rig is an integrated system that drills wells, such as oil or water wells, or holes for piling and other construction purposes, into the earth's subsurface. Drilling rigs can be massive structures housing equipment used to drill water wells, oil wells, or natural gas extraction wells, or they can be small enough to be moved manually by one person and such are called augers. Drilling rigs can sample subsurface mineral deposits, test rock, soil and groundwater physical properties, and also can be used to install sub-surface fabrications, such as underground utilities, instrumentation, tunnels or wells. Drilling rigs can be mobile equipment mounted on trucks, tracks or trailers, or more permanent land or marine-based structures. The term "rig" therefore generally refers to the complex equipment that is used to penetrate the surface of the Earth's crust.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Turning</span> Machining process

Turning is a machining process in which a cutting tool, typically a non-rotary tool bit, describes a helix toolpath by moving more or less linearly while the workpiece rotates.

Although an antique tool might be said to be one that is more than a hundred years old, the term is often used to describe any old tool of quality that might be deemed collectable.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bradawl</span> Woodworking hand tool

A bradawl is a woodworking hand tool with a blade similar to that of a straight screwdriver and a handle typically made from wood or plastic. An awl is any kind of small pointed tool.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Planer (metalworking)</span> Machining tool which uses linear relative motion between the workpiece and tool bit

A planer is a type of metalworking machine tool that uses linear relative motion between the workpiece and a single-point cutting tool to cut the work piece. A planer is similar to a shaper, but larger, and with workpiece moving, whereas in a shaper the cutting tool moves.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Benjamin Forstner</span> American inventor and gunsmith (1834–1897)

Benjamin Forstner, was an American gunsmith, inventor, and dry goods merchant.

This glossary of woodworking lists a number of specialized terms and concepts used in woodworking, carpentry, and related disciplines.

Captain Lorrington "Gimlet" King is a character created by the British author W.E. Johns, best known as the creator of Biggles and Worrals. King's nickname is taken from a gimlet, a tool used for drilling small holes - and hence the term "gimlet-eyed", meaning someone with piercing eyes and keen vision. Johns is thought to have been inspired by Major 'Gimlet' Champion, one of his commanding officers during his flying career. The rest of the name may have been inspired by South African soldier and adventurer William Lorraine King who died shortly before the first novel was published.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Boring machine (carpentry)</span>

A carpenters boring machine is a hand-driven machine to bore holes in beams such in the process of making a mortise or making holes for the wooden pegs which hold mortise and tenon joints together.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ice drilling</span> Method of drilling through ice

Ice drilling allows scientists studying glaciers and ice sheets to gain access to what is beneath the ice, to take measurements along the interior of the ice, and to retrieve samples. Instruments can be placed in the drilled holes to record temperature, pressure, speed, direction of movement, and for other scientific research, such as neutrino detection.

References

  1. Joseph Gwilt (1859), Architecture
  2. Oxford English Dictionary , 2nd. Edition, (1989)
  3. "gimlet". www.etymonline.com. Archived from the original on 14 June 2023. Retrieved 2 September 2023.