Homo sapiens tjvarietieus.
This tool-making man enjoys making things. I always have and always will.
As a kid I saw a whole community make the most of everything. We made electricity out of coal and rayon out of goop and hydrochloric acid (Celanese Fibers). We made beautiful leather from tough hides (The Tannery).
Pollution and environmental friendliness aside, the hills of Virginia were alive with makers and doers.
Just up the road, at a town called Radford (Radford Arsenal), came together the elements to make explosives - and many of the elements had been in the Virginia soil since creation. I even made some crude, but effective, black powder from Giles County elements.
I saw womenfolk get all the good from garden goods and all the good there was to get from the pig, even laughing at their final squeal. They knew hard times and survived.
Now, I give you my awl.
This simple tool has undergone many modifications and revisions over the years. If you look in tool catalogs you can find dozens of varieties of awls - punch, scratch and taper - but this is my awl.
This awl is made of bamboo, a hardened nail, JB Weld, waxed cotton cord, heat-shrink tubing, copper wire and an eye-screw and golden tassel for dressing it up. This would be the Sunday go-to-meetin' version that would look stylish in a jacket pocket or purse if housed in a proper presentation box. Maybe that is what that old Rotring pen case is really waiting to do.
I have given my awl many times to people who needed it.
People who were hanging pictures needed my awl. People making frames needed it too.
Perfect, precise and hard, my awl was what they needed and I gave it to them.
When I give my awl to someone I do make another. It will be similar, but not precisely the same.
I use worn or broken screwdrivers sometimes to make awls. They are not dressy, but they do the job. One awl I made is ground from a wide-bladed screwdriver that I ground from both sides and left a sharp point in the middle. The point is a sixteenth of an inch high and makes a perfect hole for starting screws, nails and making marks without leaving too much damage to the surrounding surface.
My grandfather spent many hour making wonderful knives from broken saw blades. Lumbermen knew that and would bring him this great heavy spring steel, mostly from the Freud factory in Germany. He would make a knife with a handle for them and then have a lot of steel to make all kinds of blades for family and friends. handles were made of bone, wood and aluminum and were fitted with brass and copper pins.
Many of the men I knew were machinists and I saw precisely milled tools and parts come off of their machines.
The women took cloth and made everything for their homes and closets and made rags into quilts. They could knit and crochet and, when I needed therapy after breaking my arm and fingers, my PT was doing clumsy crochet with my stiff and wounded hands. The fine movements did bring movement back to my hands but I hurt them again when I had to whip up on a guy for making fun of my doily.
My granddad and uncles taught me nautical knots and how to rig all kinds of fly and fishing lines.
Everyone taught me the joy of sharing.
I have created tools for my calligraphy and photography and many other pursuits.
And now, I give you my awl. © tim www.timjohnsonphoto.com
