1) The OED has definitions for ‘wimble’ which include small boring tools such as a gimlet.
Some of the earliest Yorkshire references are certain to be to similar implements: 1392 Item lego Johanni Goldbeter j wymbill et j par de pynsours, York. In a Ripon inventory of 1485 ij wymbels valued at 6d were in a list which clearly included carpentry tools, so these may have been augers. The wimble used regularly in boring for coal was a much heavier piece of equipment and it appears in coal-mining records from the early seventeenth century: 1615 to the fellow that boared to fynd cooles with Mr Hyll’s wemell, Brandsby
1642 certain wymbles for cooles, the property of Mr Stanhope, Horsforth
1720 Pd for Wimbles bitting 2s 4d, Farnley
1739 some wimbles to boor with, Whitley
1814 wimbles and bits, Honley. No wimble was included in a list of coal-mining tools in 1840 which may suggest that sinkers were by then using augers: 1840 To 34 boring Rods, 2 Chissels, Shell, catch, Dog and double brace head Ł6 12 0.