Brad awl

How it works

The user holds the handle in the palm, sets the cutting edge of the blade on the mark and turns the tool part way around and back while pressing along the axis. The edge wedges the fibers aside to form a hole, and the tool is withdrawn with similar turning. Griffith’s 1908 school textbook describes the sequence this way and notes that, unlike most boring tools, the brad awl does not remove material from the hole it makes.

The point is a wedge, not a pyramid or a spiral. Noyes’s 1910 manual states that for this reason the edge must be kept across the grain, so that the wedge does not split the wood, especially thin wood. Merriam-Webster defines the tool as an awl with a chisel edge used to make holes for brads or screws.

Anatomy

Handle: Hardwood; the museum examples are of boxwood and hickory, and Stanley’s 1929 catalog lists hardwood handles.
Ferrule: A brass collar where the blade enters the handle, present on the Watt example in the Science Museum Group collection.
Blade (shank): Round steel. Noyes says the size of a brad awl is given by the length of the blade when new.
Point: Flat and chisel-edged, ground from both faces; Noyes says it can readily be sharpened by grinding.

Variants

Fixed-handle brad awl: Blade set permanently in a boxwood, hickory or other hardwood handle; the usual form in the museum records, from a bradawl in James Watt’s workshop to a 1926 London maker’s catalog.
Scratch awl: A neighboring tool with a fixed tapered blade, used to scribe marks or as a center punch on soft wood and plastics according to the 2004 U.S. military hand-tool manual; Stanley lists scratch awls separately from brad awls.
Peg awl and awl haft: Stanley’s 1929 catalog lists a peg awl with a leather top and a four-jaw chuck, and awl hafts with chucks that hold interchangeable blades, on the same page as its brad awls.

Specifications

Blade length · in or mm: The Science Museum Group’s iron bradawl A651109 measures 129 mm overall, with a 73 mm blade and a 56 mm handle.
Point width · in: Stanley’s 1929 catalog lists brad awls by blade width in sixteenths of an inch and sells an assortment of tips; a typical width has not been sourced.

Safety and care

Safety

The 2004 U.S. military hand-tool manual says of the scratch awl that awls are very sharp and must be used with extreme caution.

Care

Keep the point covered when the awl is not in use, and stow it in a rack or tool box; lightly oil the metal parts before storing (TO 32-1-101, chapter on awls).
The point can be sharpened by grinding, according to Noyes (1910).

Tips

Set the edge across the grain
Place the cutting edge across the grain when starting, then turn the awl half way around and back until the hole is deep enough. Griffith (1908) gives this as the method, and Noyes (1910) gives the reason: the wedge-shaped point can split the wood if the edge runs with the grain.1 2
Withdraw it with the same turning
Griffith says the awl is taken out with similar turnings to those used to bore the hole.1
Use it in thin or soft stock
Noyes calls the brad awl useful for small holes in soft wood and notes the splitting hazard is greatest in thin wood. A hole opened first with the awl gives a brad or small screw a path that does not wedge the stock apart.1
Make a seat for a bit or drill
Griffith advises making a seat for the point of a bit with an awl before boring in hard wood, because otherwise it is difficult to start the bit in the exact place. The U.S. military manual likewise names an awl among the tools for starting a pilot hole for a screw.1 2
Choose the awl for the job
Stanley’s 1929 catalog sells scratch awls and brad awls as separate tools, the brad awl with a flat point. The 2004 military manual assigns scratch awls to scribing and center-punching on soft wood and plastics, which is marking work and not hole-boring.1 2

History

Earliest documented

1758–1819

Birmingham, England (James Watt’s workshop at Heathfield)

The Science Museum Group holds a steel bradawl with a turned hickory handle and brass ferrule from the contents of the workshop James Watt kept at Heathfield, Handsworth, from about 1795 until his death in 1819, dated by the museum 1758–1819. This is the earliest dated bradawl located in this research. Dictionary.com records the word itself from 1815 to 1825.1 2

The brad awl is named for the fastener it serves. Dictionary.com derives bradawl from brad and awl and dates its first recording to 1815–1825, and Merriam-Webster’s definition still ties the tool to holes for brads or screws. The earliest object located here, a hickory-handled steel bradawl from James Watt’s workshop at Heathfield, is dated by the Science Museum Group to 1758–1819, a span that brackets the earliest dictionary date but cannot narrow it.

What distinguishes it from other awls is the point. A scratch awl has a fixed tapered blade and, according to the 2004 U.S. military manual, is used to scribe marks or as a center punch on soft wood and plastics. The brad awl’s point is a flat chisel edge, and Noyes calls it wedge-shaped. That shape forces fibers apart, so the tool leaves a slit and not a round hole, and Griffith states that it does not remove material from the opening it makes. A drill or auger bit cuts a hole and carries out chips, and the brad awl does neither.

The same shape fixes how it must be used. Noyes warns that the wedge can split the work, especially thin wood, unless the edge is held across the grain, and Griffith teaches turning the tool half way around and back to the required depth. Noyes adds that the tool is useful for small holes in soft wood and can readily be sharpened by grinding, and he faults the convention of sizing it by the blade’s length when new.

The form held steady across the period the records cover. The museum’s hickory-handled Watt example, the carpenter’s bradal of 1840–1880, the boxwood-handled pair in a 1926 London maker’s catalog and the hardwood-handled flat-point brad awls in Stanley’s 1929 catalog differ in details of handle and ferrule but share a short round blade and a flat point. The 2004 U.S. military hand-tool manual lists a saddler’s awl and a scratch awl but no brad awl, so the tool is not covered by that manual. Small drills and powered drivers have taken over much hole-starting work, but the sources consulted here do not document that change, and it is not asserted.

Timeline

1758–1819
A steel bradawl with a hickory handle and brass ferrule is among the contents of James Watt’s workshop at Heathfield, later given to the Science Museum.1
1815–1825
The word bradawl, from brad and awl, is first recorded, according to Dictionary.com.1
1840–1880
The Science Museum Group dates a carpenter’s bradal, of wood and steel, to this span.1
1880–1920
The Science Museum Group dates an iron bradawl blade set into a wooden handle, 129 mm long, to this span.1
1908
Ira S. Griffith’s school textbook Essentials of Woodworking describes the brad awl as a tool for very small holes that does not remove material, and teaches starting it with the edge across the grain.1
1910
William Noyes’s Handwork in Wood describes the brad awl as wedge-shaped and warns that the edge must be kept across the grain to avoid splitting thin wood.1
1926
Charles Nurse & Co. Ltd. of London catalog two boxwood-handled bradawls as catalog number 180, now in the Science Museum Group collection.1
1929
The Stanley Works lists brad awls with hardwood handles and flat points in its Catalogue No. 129, alongside scratch awls, peg awls and awl hafts.1

Gaps in the record (6)

No patent, maker or inventor for the brad awl has been located; the tool appears to have no single inventor in the sources found.
The earliest dated object is a museum span (1758–1819), and the earliest dictionary date is a range (1815–1825) from Dictionary.com; the underlying first citation has not been read.
Older trade manuals such as Moxon’s Mechanick Exercises were searched for awls and the brad awl; no usable passage was found.
No standard or specification governs the brad awl in the sources found, so standards is empty.
No typical blade length or point width has been sourced.
No published test of brad awls was found, so buying is null.

Brace and bit