Which Wood Drilling Bits Brand Wins?
This head-to-head test of 12 wood drilling bits options has the measured results for each. See how they ranked and watch the full test video. Shoppers cross-shopping forstner bit, auger drill bit, diablo forstner bit and brad point wood drill bits land here for the head to head that settles it.
Comoware Spade (cheapest at $1.80 each, though slowest in every test)
Price shown in test: $10.79 for six bits ($1.80 each)
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The measured results
Every number below is read straight from the test. Products are listed in the order they finished.
2x4 speed (3 holes)
- 1DeWalt Spade7.2s
8.9s, 7.4s, avg 7.8s - fastest start of the test
- 2Diablo Spade7.6s
7.8s, 7.5s, avg 7.6s - fastest average, took the lead from DeWalt
- 3Bosch DareDevil Spade7.7s
7.9s, 8s
- 4Hilti8.1s
8.1s, 8s
- 5Bosch Nail Strike9.5s
9.6s, 9.4s
- 6Bauer8s
7.9s, 7.9s
- 7Irwin SPEEDBOR Spade9.1s
9.2s, 8.3s, avg 8.9s
- 8Milwaukee Spade10.4s
10.1s, 9.2s, avg 9.9s - slowest of the standard spade bits
- 9Comoware Spade34.1s
41s, 34.8s - by far the slowest brand in this test
- 10Irwin Auger6.9s
6.6s, 6.8s, avg 6.8s - fastest 2x4 time of any brand at the point it was tested
- 11Bosch Auger10s
9.8s, 9.9s - slower than Irwin Auger, which held the sub-category lead
- 12Lenox Self-feed5.7s
6s, 6.1s, avg 5.9s - fastest raw 2x4 time of every brand in the video
Oak speed
- 1DeWalt Spade5s
fastest of every brand tested in oak
- 2Diablo Spade5.2s2nd
- 3Bosch DareDevil Spade5.7s3rd
- 4Hilti5.6s
- 5Bosch Nail Strike6.9s
narrator calls it 'definitely a rough cut bit'
- 6Bauer6s3rd
moved into third place behind DeWalt and Diablo
- 7Irwin SPEEDBOR Spade6.1s
- 8Milwaukee Spade5.8s4th
- 9Comoware Spade44s
to drill through the half-inch oak
- 10Irwin Auger15.1s
much slower than the spade bits on hardwood
- 11Bosch Auger6.6s
- 12Lenox Self-feed5.3s3rd
third place behind DeWalt and Diablo in the closing oak recap
Durability (100-hole retest)
- 1DeWalt Spade
averaged 7.8s before drilling 100 holes; 7.8s after, no measurable slowdown
- 2Diablo Spade
averaged 7.6s before drilling 100 holes; 8s after
- 3Bosch DareDevil Spade
averaged 7.9s before drilling 100 holes; 8.1s after
- 4Hilti
averaged 8.1s before drilling 100 holes; 8.4s after
- 5Bosch Nail Strike
averaged 9.5s before drilling 100 holes; 9.9s after
- 6Bauer
averaged 7.9s before drilling 100 holes; slowed to 8.6s after (spurs showing wear)
- 7Irwin SPEEDBOR Spade
averaged 8.9s before drilling 100 holes; slowed to 10.5s after (visible wear)
- 8Milwaukee Spade
averaged 9.9s before drilling 100 holes; 10.4s after
- 9Comoware Spade
averaged 36s before drilling 100 holes; slowed to 43s after (visible wear)
- 10Irwin Auger
averaged 6.8s before drilling 100 holes; 6.8s after, no measurable wear
- 11Bosch Auger
averaged 9.9s before drilling 100 holes; 10.2s after
- 12Lenox Self-feed
became clogged with wood chips and stopped making progress; did not complete the retest
Nail strike damage
- 1DeWalt Spade
held up fairly well but blade shows some damage; nearly removed the nail
- 2Diablo Spade
one of two spurs took a small amount of damage
- 3Bosch DareDevil Spade
held up really well, looks as good as new
- 4Hilti
held up really well, no visible damage
- 5Bosch Nail Strike
held up really well, first bit to fully drill through the nailed board, still looked as good as new
- 6Bauer
both spurs bent, quite a bit of wear
- 7Irwin SPEEDBOR Spade
spurs took quite a bit of damage
- 8Milwaukee Spade
blade broke on nail contact (narrator notes these blades are not designed for nail contact)
- 9Comoware Spade
one spur bent from hitting the nail
- 10Irwin Auger
small amount of damage
- 11Bosch Auger
held up really well, only minor damage
- 12Lenox Self-feed
looks pretty dull after contact with the nail
Post-nail-strike 2x4 speed
- 1DeWalt Spade7.8s
before, 13s after the nail strike
- 2Diablo Spade8s
before, 8s after - no slowdown
- 3Bosch DareDevil Spade8.1s
before, 8.1s after - no slowdown
- 4Hilti8.3s
essentially unchanged from its pre-nail time
- 5Bosch Nail Strike9.7s
essentially unchanged
- 6Bauer8s
before, 16s after the nail strike
- 7Irwin SPEEDBOR Spade8.6s
before, 18.6s after - the largest post-nail slowdown of any spade bit with usable data
- 8Milwaukee Spade10.4s
before, 139s after the nail strike despite the broken blade
- 9Comoware Spade
slowed from 43s to 143s
- 10Irwin Auger6.8s
before, 6.3s after - slightly faster after the nail strike
- 11Bosch Auger10s
before, 10s after - unchanged
- 12Lenox Self-feed
clogged with wood chips again and stopped making progress, same failure as the durability test
How it was tested
- drilling speed through a 2x4 (3 holes each, drill press with fixed 54 lb downward force, 250 RPM)
- drilling speed through half-inch oak (1 hole each)
- peak torque during 2x4 and oak drilling (aggregate averages only: 87 in-lb for 2x4, 120 in-lb for oak, not broken out per brand)
- durability: speed retest after drilling 100 holes through half-inch particle board
- damage inspection after striking a 6-penny nail embedded in a 2x4
- drilling speed through a 2x4 after the nail strike
Brand head-to-head scoreboards featuring this test
Data notes and caveats
Not a single head-to-head: this video covers three mechanically distinct sub-categories bought and priced differently - 9 standard spade/boring bits, 2 auger bits (Irwin vs Bosch, narrator explicitly calls this 'not an apples to apples comparison' vs the spade bits), and 1 self-feed bit (Lenox, alone in its category, also explicitly flagged as not apples to apples). The closing verdict splits by nail-exposure use case rather than naming one overall winner: DeWalt and Diablo are named the best affordable picks for nail-free wood, Bosch DareDevil is praised as pricier but excellent, and Bosch Nail Strike is named specifically as the best pick for wood likely to contain nails - so winner is left null with both use-case picks captured here and in the relevant products' notes. Note the closing oak-test recap oddly ranks the Lenox self-feed bit (5.3s) directly alongside spade bits (DeWalt 5s, Diablo 5.2s, Hilti 5.6s, Bosch Spade 5.7s, Milwaukee 5.8s) even though it is a mechanically different self-feed bit; that cross-category comparison is preserved as narrated. Products array is ordered spade bits (best-for-nail-free-wood first) then the two auger bits then the self-feed bit, rather than one forced global rank, given the three incompatible categories.
