The tools comprised in the first division of boring tools are bradawls, gimlets, and augers. These tools are, for the most part, extremely simple in construction, the bradawl being a piece of steel sharpened at the end and fixed for convenience of use in a wooden handle; and the gimlet a piece of steel so fashioned at one end that it may take hold of, and cut its way into, timber, and having a small piece of wood or iron attached crosswise at the other end, which serves as a lever to turn the steel shank of the tool, and press it into the wood. The auger is only a gimlet on a large scale, the cross handle being turned by the operator with both hands, which are transferred from end to end of the handle at every half-turn of the tool.

The Bit-brace or Stock-and-Bit, is the principal boring tool, and, indeed, the only tool of this kind with which the amateur artisan need concern himself. There are breast-drills, fitted with a plate to hold against the breast, steadied with a handle held in the left hand, and having a chuck at the further extremity, in which the drill is placed and caused to revolve at a rapid rate by a large toothed-wheel working in a smaller wheel, the former being turned by a handle held in the right hand.