Which Drill Bit Brand Wins?

M42 cobalt, 8% cobalt alloy, thick web helix design

high-speed steel, 135 degree split point, no-spin shank with flats, claimed strong core to resist breaking

solid cobalt M42+ steel, 135 degree split point, three flat sides to prevent chuck spin

cobalt split points, designed for hardened metal, stainless steel, cast iron, wood and plastic

industrial quality M35 cobalt, claims up to 12 times longer life than average consumer grade HSS, 135 degree quick-cut point

cobalt split points

cobalt with a Pilot Point tip, claims four times the life in stainless steel versus the high-speed steel version

cobalt with a variable helix flute (35 degree angle transitioning to 15 degree for rapid chip removal), claims 15 times the life versus black oxide bits

cobalt, 135 degree split point

cobalt, 135 degree split point

claims to be an M42 bit, 135 degree split point, claims 10 times the life

M35 cobalt, 135 degree split point, designed for hard materials (stainless steel, cast iron, high temperature alloys) as well as softer materials (plastics, wood)

high-speed steel with a titanium coating

(tied with Irwin for third place at that point in the video, no visible damage)

second fastest overall behind only the Viking, no visible damage

only a tenth of a second slower than the DeWalt HSS, no visible damage

no visible damage aside from some material leftovers on the tip

described elsewhere in the transcript as 'handling mild steel just fine but not nearly as fast as some of the other brands'

moved into second place behind the DeWalt HSS at that point in the video, no visible damage

moved into second place behind the DeWalt HSS bit, no visible damage

still very sharp afterward

less than a second slower than the DeWalt HSS, no visible damage

no visible damage

did not post a clean finishing time; test was ended at around 2 and a half minutes with the bit described as very brittle and heavily damaged

roughly half again slower than the DeWalt HSS, with leftover material stuck on the leading edge of the bit tip

by far the strongest bit at the time it was tested; final recap confirms it as second strongest overall behind Century

(15.9 ft lb), noticeably stronger than the Somada in the same test

quite a bit stronger than average, third strongest in the final recap

drills fast but not as strong as some other brands

the strongest bit in the entire test despite not being the fastest cutter

(transcript renders this brand as 'glue line' at this point), gave up quite a bit sooner than average

quite a bit better than the Ryobi and Irwin in the same test

better than the LW in the same test

gave up sooner than the Ryobi in the same test, the weakest result recorded

described as extremely brittle and easy to chip despite this decent torque figure

(14.4 ft lb), notably weaker than the DeWalt HSS in the same test

gave up very early, among the weakest results in the test

China

Thailand

USA

China

USA

USA

China and Germany (the specific 3/8 in bit tested was made in Germany)

China

China

China

China

China

more than twice its mild-steel time, became stuck at breakthrough

(transcript caption split the decimal across a line break, joined as one continuous reading)

actually faster than the Cle-Line on spring steel at this point

a little faster than average

still performing well

(transcript garbled as '22.72% de split Point'), took the lead from the Irwin Cobalt at that point; note this figure is identical to the Viking's spring-steel figure elsewhere in the transcript, which may be a transcription coincidence or duplication and is preserved as reported for each brand rather than resolved

reported in the transcript as '2.06 seconds' being 'the fastest time of all the bits' on spring steel not counting the LW; this figure is implausibly fast for spring steel (faster than its own mild-steel time) and a later passage confirms Milwaukee 'was the fastest to drill through the spring steel last time,' so this is likely a caption error dropping a digit (plausibly around 20.6 seconds); the literal transcript figure is preserved here rather than corrected

fast enough to take the lead from the DeWalt HSS at that point

a pretty decent time considering the hardness of the test piece

the fastest time recorded at that point after being resharpened, but described as too brittle to compete and again heavily damaged

about three times its mild-steel time, one of the slowest bits tested but did not give up

four times its mild-steel time, described as needing that much longer for the spring steel

(a fraction of a second slower than Irwin's retest, moved into third place)

finished third in this retest behind Viking and Comoware

described as 'the much more affordable kware was almost as fast' as the Viking, second place in this retest

still trailing most of the pack

a little faster than the Irwin's retest of 14.45

(transcript reads '17.1 n seconds')

took the lead from the Somada in this retest

(transcript reads '1579 seconds', read with an implied decimal since it is close to the original 15.12 second time)

(transcript reads '17.86%', read as seconds), still benefiting from resharpening but too damaged to compete with the top bits

was not able to drill through the spring steel twice in a row but did complete a mild steel retest at this time

described as a 72 percent loss in performance, with heavy wear and tear

(transcript reads "19.67% 01 seconds"; the trailing "01" is a caption artifact discarded as noise - four-decimal-place precision would be inconsistent with all neighboring readings in this test), moved into third place behind the DeWalt Cobalt at that point

took the lead from the Milwaukee, very small amount of wear

moved into third place just behind the Irwin, very small amount of wear

moved into first place again at that point, small amount of wear

still faster than average, experienced quite a bit of chipping damage though the reviewer notes the resulting edge might not hurt performance

lost a lot of speed and had by far the most damage of all the drill bits tested up to that point

not reliably extractable from the transcript; the relevant passage ('pretty slow this time at ... on the previous test and is faster this time as well at 20.55...') is too garbled and appears to merge with an adjacent sentence about the LWCUSNJ bit, so no number is reported here