New handcrafted tool
William R. Duffield, on the Cohansey
>In preparation to hijack another thread, Holes in Saw Steel, I had smuggled a pointed object on board. With the heightened security following several successful hijackings, at the last minute I decided against the dastardly deed. Instead, here is a new thread.
As I noted, while attempting to fabricate a backsaw, I broke a pin punch 
that I suspect had been improperly hardened. My son needed some tools so he could begin some wood carving. He visited my shop at Christmas. Wanting in no way to discourage his artistic talents, and since all the raw materials for a new awl had somehow found their way onto the world's messiest workbench not equipped with a tool tray, I let him take my awl home with him. I guess the new cocobolo carving mallet, several board feet of seasoned, clear hardwood carving stock in several species, and all my out-of-favor carving tools weren't enough. I had made the old awl from a redbay (Persea borbonia) branch, a short piece of thin copper pipe and an Allen wrench, and I consider it a family heirloom.
This evening, after losing an altercation with the block of black locust that had been my first choice, I decided olive (Olea europa, not Bucida spinosa or B. buceras) would do just fine for the new awl's handle. I hacked off a hunk and drilled a 1/8" diameter hole about an inch and a quarter deep in one end, and shaped it to an approximate cylinder with a spokeshave. I chucked the broken pin punch shaft into the Jacob's chuck in the lathe headstock and sharpened a point on it with an angle grinder. Then I turned it end for end in the chuck, slipped on a small compression nut and inserted the shaft into the hole in the olive block, using it as a mandrel while I turned the olive and turned and fitted the ferrule. I discussed ferrules in a thread I had hijacked a week ago on pattern rasps. After completing the turning, I filled a check with cyanoacrylate and some of the shavings, applied several coats of my favorite finish, alternating walnut oil and orange shellac. I parted off the handle, sanded and finished the butt end with more "frog polish", still wet on the rag, and with the chuck key, freed the completed awl from the lathe.
Overall length of the awl is 5 1/2". The exposed portion of the 4" long by 1/8" diameter shaft is 2 3/4". The handle is 1 3/4" in diameter. The brass ferrule is 3/8" long and takes a 1/2" wrench.
Pam, you are on our list of suspected hijackers. If you try to discuss the shoji screens I used as backdrop, you will be detained out on a runway for several hours, the air conditioning will be turned off and the elevator music will be turned on, and you will be forced to eat airplane food. I assure you that the shoji are forgeries, constructed totally with Western power tools. Thanks for the assistance with the screens and with the digitization.
Critiques of the artistic merit of the awl, the screens, the photography, and this article are welcome and encouraged. If you don't want to discuss it here, we can take it to the Critiques forum, where the analysis will remain in public view.