Quality drill bits

P

PT Doc

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Dec 24, 2011
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I know this is not an infrequent discussion between folks that drill steel. There are so many options on drill material, length, tip angle. I have owned many sets of drills from the Home Depot Black and Decker set to Harbor Freight cobalt drills. Clearly, paying attention to speeds and feeds and cutting and not rubbing generally works. After getting a bit pissed with lack of durability I decided to spring for a good set. I talked to a machinist and a guy that drills holes most of the day and they recommended The Norseman brand. So I picked up a set and holy cow, are they nice. They are nice looking and they drill great holes. And USA made. They can be found at times for really good prices as well.
https://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?p=7495515#post7495515
Thought I would chime in to support a great company making superior drills that are Made in the USA!
 
I was looking at those on Amazon just a few days ago when I ordered a new drill/driver. I might have to add a set of Norseman drills to my next order. Thanks for posting your thoughts on these drills...
 
Do you know how to / can you sharpen a drill bit? On your belt grinder?
I asked as it is imperative as a knife maker / machinist, to know how to accomplish this task. Whether it's a cheap drill bit or the best money can buy, run it down on some hardened steel that you thought was annealed and you have ruined its cutting tip and edge. You must know how to sharpen a bit. If you cannot do this efficiently and quickly you will be doomed forever to buy bits that may or may not work for a period of time and yet always inevitably need resharpening.
 
anvilring said:
Do you know how to / can you sharpen a drill bit? On your belt grinder?
I asked as it is imperative as a knife maker / machinist, to know how to accomplish this task. Whether it's a cheap drill bit or the best money can buy, run it down on some hardened steel that you thought was annealed and you have ruined its cutting tip and edge. You must know how to sharpen a bit. If you cannot do this efficiently and quickly you will be doomed forever to buy bits that may or may not work for a period of time and yet always inevitably need resharpening.
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Agreed. Wire sized bits on up to about 1/8" or so I consider disposable. Even on up to 1/4" in some cases. After that though, it does tend to get cost prohibitive if you don't know how to sharpen them. There's lots of fancy jigs and machines that go from fairly simple to needing an engineering degree to run... Usually if you want something that actually does a good job, you're gonna spend between a few hundred and a couple thousand dollars though. You are much better off to learn how to use a basic drill sharpening gauge and your belt or bench grinder.

Even with proper feeds and speeds, cutting lubes, etc... even the best bits will go dull eventually. Sharpening is just part of the process.
 
For drilling steel, i am a fan of short shank bits (shortest i can find), a low degree (i think 112 or so is lowest typically), and a good steel like M4 or something. I buy 3/32" bits by the dozen. I retire a bit soon as i suspect it may be getting dull. I punch the holes before drilling, make sure the bit doesnt flex going into the indentation, use a cutting lube, and hold the stock down good. I dont use a wood table on drill press table since the surface is uneven and can indent the wood. I use bare metal drill press table. I move the table to where the stock is well supported and wont tilt through the table hole under drill pressure. I use old bits for temp pins, just cut off the spiral part. Using these pins, i can tell when i mess up a hole. If the stock gets away from me and rides up the bit when it breaks through, i can tell the hole is wallored out. I hate wallored out holes.
 
Like Bill says... Just learn to sharpen the damn bits! It's not that hard. Actually, bigger bits are harder to sharpen than little ones. For the bigger bits you actually have to relieve the backside of The Cutting Edge bevel... And how much you relieve it affects how quickly it bites . Just like with knife blades, a fine angle is keener, cuts better/ quicker, but sacrifices toughness in the process. By learning to sharpen bits small and large, you can tailor your sharpening procedures for certain materials far better than manufacturers deliver as a finished product. It's actually a real plus learn to do it.
 
I highly recommend the Norseman drills. I would get mine from fastenal. At one time in my like I manufactured bullet molds for casting lead Bullets. We used a lot of 1/8” Norseman drills and each one would do thousands of holes in 1/4” mild steel. fastenal Kept a few of my dull ones for display. Thy had customers come back and say these drills are junk thy only did 2 holes. It all comes down to the proper feeds and speeds and coolant. If you get thoes numbers right you would be surprised on how long a drill will last. But yeah two thumbs way up for Norseman drills
 
JTknives said:
It all comes down to the proper feeds and speeds and coolant. If you get thoes numbers right you would be surprised on how long a drill will last. But yeah two thumbs way up for Norseman drills
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Well said. If you get a decent understanding of speeds, feeds, coolant and touching up the drills, you will much less frustrated.
 
I can't recommend DrillCo Nitro line enough for exotics, stainless, and nickel steels, but they're a little more brittle than the bright HSS cobalt ones, which I prefer for general use. I personally don't bother sharpening bits 1/8" or smaller, I buy them in packs of 20 or 50 and they're very inexpensive at my local distributor. Blows Fastenal or Grainger's prices out of the water, and by far some of the best quality non-carbide drills I've ever used. Best for high feed and speed rates though.

Their end-mill line though (Bentley?) sucks.


For carbide I like Bestcarbide brand, but any US made carbide drills are typically good. AlTIN coating if available, always with non-coolant use.
 
Norseman black and gold. Buy in quantity ad make sure you don't buy the counterfeit Chinese imitations. Larry
 
LARRYZ10 said:
Norseman black and gold. Buy in quantity ad make sure you don't buy the counterfeit Chinese imitations. Larry
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Good point on the counterfeit. There are drills front China masquerading as Norseman Black Gold drill on eBay. Funny also, that listings on eBay will say USA in the listing but the only thing USA is the Huot drill Index. That is done on purpose to make you think you found an awesome deal.

Industrial Supply Center is a small family owned business and they are an Authorized Norseman dealer.

This is a reminder to place orders for the Norseman offer today. This offer ends at 2PM EST.
 
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