A wood auger is a device for drilling wood, consisting of a rotating metal shaft that scrapes or cuts into the material with a blade at its end. In the classical design, a helical screw blade winds around the lower end of the shaft; the blade's lower edge is sharpened to scrape away wood while the rest of the blade lifts the resulting chips clear of the hole, and the traditional hand tool is turned by gripping a T-shaped handle fixed to the top of the shaft with both hands. A typical woodworking, or carpenter's, auger is built from six distinct functional parts: a feed screw, a cutting lip, a spur, a twist, a shank and a tang, and later versions of the tool were adapted to be driven by a brace, a wheel drill such as an eggbeater drill, or an electric power drill rather than turned by hand alone.
Facts
Introduced When (Circa)Depicted in use by circa 1496, in Albrecht Durer's engraving from The Seven Sorrows of the Virgin, the earliest dated depiction found in the sources consulted. 1 OriginThe tool also appears in Georges de La Tour's painting of St. Joseph operating an auger, a second period artwork the source cites depicting the classical hand auger, worked two-handed by a T-shaped handle turning a helical screw blade that scrapes the wood while lifting the chips clear. 1 Connections
Used In
Wood Auger is used in Woodworking.
Sources
1. Wood Auger (Wikipedia)
Wikimedia FoundationTypes section, image caption
Study of a man using an auger, from The Seven Sorrows of the Virgin, by Albrecht Dürer, c. 1496.
Types section, La Tour image caption
Painting by Georges de La Tour of St. Joseph operating an auger.
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