How to deal with red tape

[rxh]

I was intrigued recently to learn about the lawyer’s bodkin, used to pierce and lace tape through the pages of a document such as a deed, the tape then being tied to keep the pages together. I couldn’t resist the impulse to make one and try it out. I used offcuts of mahogany for the wooden parts.




The shaft is made of 1/8” dia. silver steel rod. I formed the eye by hammering the end of the rod to flatten it and drilled two 1.5mm holes. With a piercing saw, I cut a slot linking the holes, then threaded through a strip of abrasive paper which I worked with a sort of “flossing” action to widen the slot (I wore out several strips of abrasive paper before achieving the desired width). Then I completed the shaping of the eye and point with small files. After heat treatment, I sharpened the point with oilstones.


I am not a lawyer and will probably have little use for the bodkin but it was a fun little project and I now have a desk ornament and probable conversation piece.

 

[duke]

Very interesting, any idea when this bodkin started?
Nicely made and as you say a great conversational piece.

 

[rxh]

Very interesting, any idea when this bodkin started?
Nicely made and as you say a great conversational piece.

Thanks - they appear in old tool catalogues as "lawyer's bodkins", "stationer's awls" and possibly as "paper stabbers".

 

[AndyT]

I was pleased to see that it wasn't some rant about regulations! Lovely work as ever. Could pass for an antique.

 

[CHJ]

Neatly Turned out, admire your tenacity with that Needle Eye forming in silver steel.

 

[Cabinetman]

I wondered what was to stop silly people stabbing them selves and the base -stand covers that nicely, and a safe place to keep it too.
All very nicely made.

 

[Eric the Viking]

I wondered what was to stop silly people stabbing themselves...

... er, nothing at all?

Seriously, it's a beautiful thing, well made.

I'm trying to clean the Augean stables that are my study presently, which means a lot of paper recycling. Had many documents been bound with ribbon instead of staples, it would probably have saved me hours, and a lot of muttering...

 

[rxh]

I wondered what was to stop silly people stabbing them selves and the base -stand covers that nicely, and a safe place to keep it too.
All very nicely made.

Yes, they can be dangerous. A friend who is a retired solicitor told me that a clerk in his office had injured herself with one and needed hospital treatment.

 

[Duncan A]

Very clever, and so much nicer than staples or treasury tags.
Love the way you made the eye.