Drill index - quality. Which to get?

Don't forget cobalt if you plan on drilling titanium.

Cobalt makes a world of difference there.

I jut buy individual drills from Enco personally, but I have drill cabinets with multiples of every size.
 
I managed to order that drill set that's on sale last night after the bar. I woke up and remember having my credit card out , thank god it was only a $30 drill set.
 
Don't buy Dewalt drills as they are poorly designed and will destroy handle materials. They work ok for steel but they are way too aggressive for wood and other soft things. The Rigid cobalt drills are actually pretty good if you can find the set on sale. I paid $20 for my 1/16-3/8 set x1/16 Go to www.use-enco.com Just buy the sizes you need in package quantities. You'll probably never need more than 10 different drill sizes. . If you use reamers you'll need odd sizes that can't be found locally in most places anyway.
 
I just spent $22.95 on a 22 bit set of black oxide coated bits from Sears, the same quality I have been using for 20 plus years for drilling steel. Forget the cobalt and fancy points, it you use a drillpress and slow your spindle speed and keep oil on the point you will get lots of holes with the plain black oxide Sears bits. Do not buy harbor freight or Vermont American brand, they are soft dull crap. You can get good bits from MSC or Enco as well.

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I've been using the norseman cobalt's and love them. I only keep a few sizes on hand for knife work. 1/8, 3/16, 1/4. I've got a few other sizes in other brands, but the norseman's are excellent. I've got spares but so far I'm on the original ones I bought when I started making knives over a year ago. Fastenal carries norseman if you want a "walk in" type place, but I've gotten mine from Tracy at USAknifemaker.com along with the norseman oil. It's a nice thick oil, almost gel like most of the year, hehe.
 
Remyrw said:
I've been using the norseman cobalt's and love them. I only keep a few sizes on hand for knife work. 1/8, 3/16, 1/4. I've got a few other sizes in other brands, but the norseman's are excellent. I've got spares but so far I'm on the original ones I bought when I started making knives over a year ago. Fastenal carries norseman if you want a "walk in" type place, but I've gotten mine from Tracy at USAknifemaker.com along with the norseman oil. It's a nice thick oil, almost gel like most of the year, hehe.
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I've been looking at Norseman sets for awhile , are they worth the extra $$ it? sounds like it, I'd really love to get a large set and be set for years. KMS Tools Canada has the super premium 29 piece set on sale for $120 from 1/16th to 1/2 . But I just ordered that huge 120 piece Ti N set Stacy linked . I guess I'll wait a bit longer, gotta stop buying and start producing more.
 
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The problem with sets is that you only get one of each size so you'll need to buy more of any size that you actually use anyway. I usually throw bits away after only a few uses since it's just not worth the dollar or so that a new one costs to risk messing up expensive materials. Carbon-fiber, and g-10 will destroy bits after only a few holes no matter what bits you use. Drilling pearl, Ivory, and expensive woods I always use a brand new bit that's never been used on metal or laminates before. Anytime I need to drill a hole in something I've already put a lot of time into I break out a brand new bit. There's nothing worse than trying to save a dollar and ruining a $200 piece of ivory. I learned that lesson the hard way.

The other big problem with sets for a knifemaker is that the majority of drill sizes you need aren't multiples of 1/16 or even 1/64. You'll need a lot of number and letter size drills along with some odd decimal sizes but very rarely will fractional drills work. Unless you only make fixed blades with 1/16, 1/8, and 3/16 pins in which case you only need those three bits anyway. Say for example you want to use 2-56 torx pan head screws in a knife, you'll need a #50 for the tap unless you're tapping titanium then you need a #49 or 48, a #43 clearance drill, and a #20 countersink

So, sets are great for general handyman kind of stuff where hole size doesn't really matter as long as it's close but for knifemaking the standard fractional drill index is pretty much worthless.
 
I just bought the sizes I needed, I don't do random work on metal, so I just needed sizes to match my materials. Something to keep in mind, it's not just cobalt/black oxide/titanium coated.... it's also the design. Cobalt bits are designed with the tip angle suited to harder metals not wood. They are less than ideal for softer materials and will actually do a poorer job than a cheap set of wood bits. Black Oxide is often available both ways and you want to match tip angle with purpose for good results. I use my cobalts for steel and that's about it, occasionally I'll use them on G10 but not if I am worried about the surface of the G10, it tends to chip the top layer. I am generally sanding down past that anyway but if I don't plan to I use a different bit.

Just like with the edges on our knives, it's as much geometry as material when it comes to cutting performance and role.
 
I like having a 115 piece set around. I get the coated set from Grizzly for Roughly 80 bucks. It lasts about 5 years until its basically toast. Then I get a new one. I only use it for o dd sizes that come up. I've standardized the rest of my holes to 1/8, 1/4, and 7/16. Of course, the acual bits are metrics a few mils bigger than each size.
 
Main issue I think is these are really designed for the hardest thing being drilled as hard-wood. I bought the brad-point set, and they are very nice for handle material (did some test holes) and for kydex.
 
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