Old hand operated drill bits?

[running bird]

I'm planning out a couple knife projects and my dad gave me some old drill bits. He dose a lot of wood working with only hand tools and buys a lot of his tools from garage sales, antique stores, barns ect. He grabbed me a box of about 15-20 of these old bits for $1. He already has a nice collection of these kinds of bits from his grandpa so he didn't need them and thought they would be good for knives.

My question is if anyone knows what steel specifically was used for these kinds of bits? I would assume it's some good carbon steel, the sparks look promising. Some have a company name on them, looks like it says GREENLEE. Some of them are rusted a lot and I can't see any markings on them.

Just looking for a little more information, I'm guessing they will be similar to files but thought I would check here first. Has anyone used bits like these before for blades?

Here is a picture of a few of them: https://imgur.com/a/CSuuy

Thanks for the help,
Kevin

 

[BitingSarcasm]

Yes, I have a bunch of those old bits, and I use them too--just not the way you intend. I like an 18 volt power driver for lots of things, but I really enjoy the accuracy and precision of the old hand crank drills. You might try posting this over in one of the Maker forums if you are going to turn them into a billet. If the steel was junk, they wouldn't hold up to hard use and they wouldn't re-sharpen, so I think your reasoning is sound.

 

[Hickory n steel]

Greenlee was an excellent maker of woodworking tools such as chisels, draw knives, brace and bits ...ect so I'd expect the Steel to be top notch 👍