Unexpected treasures 2 - brace and bit

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I posted a coloured drawing that my mother did when she was twelve. Here is another pencil sketch of a brace and bit – though minus the bit. I don’t know how old she was when she did this but she left school at 14 and it would have been before she left school. I googled brace and bit as perhaps younger myLotters are not familiar with this once-common hand tool. It was used for boring holes in wood. Nowadays the holes would be drilled with an electric drill. I remember going out into the paddocks with my father while he spent several hours boring holes in fence-posts with a brace and bit. No wonder he had strong arms. Apparently the U-shape of the handle gives greater torque. The drill bit/augur usually had a wood screw thread which helped pull the bit into the wood. You pressed down on the handle with one hand and rotated the U-shaped piece with the other.