Benchcrafted Czeck Edge Awls: My Little Beavers

It’s Benchcrafted Week here at Never Sponsored.

If you don’t follow the tool news, Benchcrafted recently acquired Czeck Edge tools and has been redesigning the tools. We decided to purchase a few and see if Benchcrafted had mucked them up (spoiler: they haven’t).

I purchased one of their new marking knives and both sizes of the redesigned bird-cage awls. We’re deal with the marking knife in a future He-Said-She-Said review where Megan and I have a knife fight. Today let’s look at the new awls.

There are several types of awls, but the one that is most useful to my work is the bird-cage awl. It has a sharp four-sided tip that by twisting it can burrow through wood. By the end of the 300^th hardware install on “Campaign Furniture” I was using the bird-cage awl to make all my pilots for small brass screws. The shape of the tool’s tip gives you a nice tapered pilot, perfect for brass screws that will snap if you over-tighten them.

I also use the bird-cage awl for marking my mortises in my chairs. The hole prevents the tip of my bit from slipping or skittering.

The Czeck Edge’s tip is polished mirror sharp.

The bird-cage awl currently in my chest is from Matthias Fenner in Germany. It is a thing of beauty and suits my aesthetics (walnut and brass).