Ivory Inlay Awl

[Oldtoolsniper]

I made this after seeing Rawcustoms post on making a new Awl blade holder. I used his idea for the blade holder and bought the double collet pin vise from EBay.

I don't make my own blades, I buy them.

The handle is turned out of Cocobolo with a brass ferrule turned to flush itself with the Cocobolo. The business end of course is the pin vise. I struggled with how to handle the reference point on the handle. I've read where folks sand down a flat spot for reference. That would serve to keep the handle from rolling around too. You would not have to look either but in my case I've been sewn back together enough to know I'm not real found of that. I prefer to watch myself stab myself so I went with an orientation inlay so I have to watch.

The inlay is Ivory from a late 1800's piano that went to the scrap yard, I harvested the keys and soaked the ivories off to use as inlays. Figuring out how to cut the ivory was interesting to say the least.

I am about three weeks into leather work and this site has helped me greatly. What drove me to leather work is unprotected sharp pointy things. My friends have a hard time not cutting themselves when they visit. I warn them if it's meant to be sharp and I own it, well it's sharp. I'm forced to either make sheaths for my sharp pointy things or get new friends.

I see it this way, if you pick it up, unsnap the sheath strap, pull it out of the sheath and proceed to insert the sharp pointy thing into you body all by yourself you must have wanted it there.

Thank you all for helping to protect my friends from themselves.

[rawcustom]

Excellent craftsmanship! You won't misplace or abuse an awl like that. Glad I inspired your effort but you take full credit of those skills.

[Oldtoolsniper]

Made another out of Bocote in the style of the tool handles on most of my tools.

[slipangle]

Old thread but, very nice work indeed. Inspired by your post, I'm working a a couple myself.

Out of some old growth rosewood and Starrett pin vises.

Would be interested in how you made the ivory disc.

[Oldtoolsniper]

Drill out the Ivory with a hollow round straight punch. I used my drill press. Drill a inset into the handle to insert the disk. The low parts of the handle will leave the Ivory sticking out the most, just sand it flush after you epoxy it in.

[Oldtoolsniper]

http://leatherworker.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=58695

Here is some information on a rose knife I cleaned up. It will explain it in more detail.

[slipangle]

Thanks. Very nice work. As a toolmaker myself, I am curious about the tool you used to drill the ivory disc. I'm trying to envision a "hollow round straight punch". Is this something you made yourself? I'm not sure I've ever seen such an animal.

Thanks

Scott

[Oldtoolsniper]

The punches are just straight shaft hollow punches that I can put in my drill press. An arch punch won't work since the handle is square and won't work as a drill bit.

The punch up high on the shim stack is home made. Just a 3/8 inside diameter piece of pipe put in the drill press and sharpened with a file and sandpaper. I used a file to form the angle and sharpened it or honed it with wet/dry sand paper glued onto medium density fiberboard (mdf) as the hone. I did this under power in the drill press.

I use the drill press because hammer punching the disks does not work, the Ivory shatters.

I'm betting some of those hollow punches made in China from Horrible Freight would work just fine for this operation. The only requirement is to have a straight shaft so you can use the punch as a drill bit in the drill press. You need to match the inlay with a drill bit but that's pretty easy to do.

Finding pipe without a seam inside is the biggest challenge.

[Oldtoolsniper]

This would work for any kind of inlay. It does not need to be an Ivory piano key, I just happen to have a few hundred on hand.

[slipangle]

Ah yes...Thanks,

I have made cutters out of Steel tubing before. I was wondering if maybe there was a miniature, toothed tool I hadn't discovered yet.

[Oldtoolsniper]

I tried a plug cutter for wood plugs but it just tore it all up.

[slipangle]

Yes. Those plug cutters work, but for rough work. I'll try making a little circle cutter out of a stainless steel heavy wall tubing I have. Great idea. Thanks for the tips. I've finished my first couple of awl hafts but so far am only marking the "orientation" mark with a small metal stamp on my nickel silver ferrules. An inlay in the handle would be much more useful.