WoodOwl augur impressions

[Patrick Chase]

I had a need for an extra-long 1" augur, so I bought the 18" WoodOwl "Ultra Smooth". I'm posing this as a quick comparative evaluation to the 3 other 1" augurs that I own: A Fisch/TFWW "modern Jennings", a Stanley/Jennings-branded "real Jennings", and the inexpensive Brazilian-made single-flute augurs that LV sells (http://www.leevalley.com/us/wood/page.aspx?p=45003&cat=1,180,42240). I tested using a 10" brace and 12/4 blocks of Maple and White Pine.

The WoodOwl and Fisch still have their factory grinds. I'd call them even (and both quite finely finished) in terms of factory grind quality. The LV's factory grind was OK but I've subsequently sharpened it. I had to significantly reshape the Jennings a while back to correct a previous owner's "unconventional" ideas about bevel and relief and restore it to NOS-equivalent geometry, so its shape is entirely my work, for better or worse.

All 4 bits use conventional cutting geometries (edge profile, bevel and relief). The WoodOwl has the steepest flutes of the 4, probably to assist chip clearance when used with a higher-speed electric drill. All 4 work fine with a brace.

From a design point of view, the big differences between the 4 are in advance rate (how fast the screw draws the but into the work) and cut depth. Advance rate has a huge impact in overall cutting effort, while cut depth impacts effort and heating/wear:


The WoodOwl has a 0.06"/turn screw (single-threaded at 0.06" pitch) and 3 flutes, so it takes 0.02" cuts.
The Fisch has a 0.05"/turn screw (single-threaded at 0.05" pitch) and 2 flutes, so it takes 0.025" cuts.
The Jennings has a 0.1"/turn screw (double-threaded at 0.05" pitch) and 2 flutes, so it takes 0.05" cuts.
The LV has a 0.07"/turn screw (single-threaded at 0.07" pitch) and 1 flute, so it takes a 0.07" cut.

Unsurprisingly the Fisch/TFWW and WoodOwl augers are very similar in use: They require similar effort to drive, heat up by about the same amount, and both leave clean holes in both species with very minimal tearing. I haven't used either long enough to have a sense of wear, but I suspect they'll end up comparable.

The Jennings is a beast to drive, and its teeth and scorers heat up more than either WoodOwl or Fisch. It's also much faster than Fisch/WoodOwl, but that's offset by the need to "rest" the woodworker and the tool between holes. It leaves a clean hole with the least tearing of all, though that may not be a fair comparison to the others as I've worked on the Jennings bit's scorers quite a bit.

The Brazilian-made LV is almost as difficult to drive as the Jennings, but it heats up significantly more, probably because it takes the most aggressive cut and concentrates all of the heat in one flute. LV cautions that this bit can overheat to the point of detempering when used in dry hardwoods, and they aren't joking. It leaves more tearing than any of the other 3 bits, though it still leaves a good quality hole IMO (far better than a hardware store auger). It's also quite a bit cheaper than either of the other 2 new options and quite serviceable, particularly if you're willing to do your own sharpening.

In terms of weight the bits aren't directly comparable as the WoodOwl is longer than the others. With that said all are made of steel with similar density, so a lot can be learned by looking at the cross section. The WoodOwl has very similar flute thickness to the two Jennings-pattern bits (Jennings and Fisch), though it has a slightly "heavier" cross-section than either due to the presence of the 3rd flute. All 3 (WoodOwl, Fisch, Jennings) are much lighter than the Brazilian-made LV. The LV only has a single flute, but it's about 5X as thick as the others.

My overall impression of the WoodOwl is that it's a very good quality modern auger, that achieves ease-of-use and avoids heating by advancing relatively slowly and taking shallow cuts. I can easily see how it would cut faster than either the Jennings or the LV on a cordless driver, by allowing the drill motor to run faster and therefore closer to its optimum. It's interesting that both of the modern high-end makers (Fisch and WoodOwl) have landed on basically the same formula.

[Rush Paul]

I had a need for an extra-long 1" augur, so I for the 18" WoodOwl "Ultra Smooth". I'm posing this as a quick comparative evaluation to the 3 other 1" augurs that I own: A Fisch/TFWW "modern Jennings", a Stanley/Jennings-branded "real Jennings", and the inexpensive Brazilian-made single-flute augurs that LV sells (http://www.leevalley.com/us/wood/page.aspx?p=45003&cat=1,180,42240). I tested using a 10" brace and 12/4 blocks of Maple and White Pine...
Very helpful, Patrick. Thanks for posting this. For whatever it may be worth, and consistent with your findings, the WoodOwl smooth bore is the bit Richard Maguire came to use in constructing his workbenches (http://www.maguireworkbenches.com/) while he was building them commercially.

[Patrick Chase]

Very helpful, Patrick. Thanks for posting this. For whatever it may be worth, and consistent with your findings, the WoodOwl smooth bore is the bit Richard Maguire came to use in constructing his workbenches (http://www.maguireworkbenches.com/) while he was building them commercially.

I admittedly had a viscerally negative reaction to some of the claims in the other thread, and still don't believe the parts about magically light and strong unobtanium alloys, but now that I've worked with it it's clear to me that the WoodOwl is a very well-designed, well-made bit. It would be hard to do significantly better (though some might prefer the Fisch/TFWW for its more traditional pattern), and it's unfortunately all too easy to do a whole lot worse.

[Jim Koepke]

Thanks for doing the work on this Patrick.

Surely it will be of help in decision making by folks looking to buy a new bit.

jtk

[Mike Holbrook]

I might add that TFWW's price for a 3/4" "Jennings Pattern Auger Bit for Braces" is $39.45. The 3/4" Wood Owl is available for $14.99 from Tool Planet, $17.90 at Lee Valley. Although I do not have TFWW bits to test with I believe the Wood Owl bits do not heat up nearly as much as older Irwin and Jennings bits which I suspect were manufactured to lesser tolerances than the replacement bits TFWW offers.

[Normand Leblanc]

I measured a 1" Irwin double flutes with 0.065" screw so that's ~.032" per cut.

I have a full set bought in new condition (were never sharpened) and it does leave nice holes. I have nothing else to compare with but am very happy with them.

[Patrick Chase]

I might add that TFWW's price for a 3/4" "Jennings Pattern Auger Bit for Braces" is $39.45. The 3/4" Wood Owl is available for $14.99 from Tool Planet, $17.90 at Lee Valley. Although I do not have TFWW bits to test with I believe the Wood Owl bits do not heat up nearly as much as older Irwin and Jennings bits which I suspect were manufactured to lesser tolerances than the replacement bits TFWW offers.

The old Jennings-branded (Stanley) bits were actually pretty well manufactured. The dimension that matters for heating is the diameter, and that's dead on. We humans have known how to accurately grind diameters for quite some time now.

As I've already pointed out, the reason the Jennings bits heat up more is tbat they advance into the wood almost twice as fast as the WoodOwl, because their screws are double-threaded. Like the Fisch bit, the WoodOwl runs cool because it advances slowly and takes shallow cuts.

There is no magic tolerancing here, just a straightforward design choice (fast/hot vs slow/cool).

[Pat Barry]

I had a need for an extra-long 1" augur, so I bought the 18" WoodOwl "Ultra Smooth". I'm posing this as a quick comparative evaluation to the 3 other 1" augurs that I own: A Fisch/TFWW "modern Jennings", a Stanley/Jennings-branded "real Jennings", and the inexpensive Brazilian-made single-flute augurs that LV sells (http://www.leevalley.com/us/wood/page.aspx?p=45003&cat=1,180,42240). I tested using a 10" brace and 12/4 blocks of Maple and White Pine.

The WoodOwl and Fisch still have their factory grinds. I'd call them even (and both quite finely finished) in terms of factory grind quality. The LV's factory grind was OK but I've subsequently sharpened it. I had to significantly reshape the Jennings a while back to correct a previous owner's "unconventional" ideas about bevel and relief and restore it to NOS-equivalent geometry, so its shape is entirely my work, for better or worse.

All 4 bits use conventional cutting geometries (edge profile, bevel and relief). The WoodOwl has the steepest flutes of the 4, probably to assist chip clearance when used with a higher-speed electric drill. All 4 work fine with a brace.

From a design point of view, the big differences between the 4 are in advance rate (how fast the screw draws the but into the work) and cut depth. Advance rate has a huge impact in overall cutting effort, while cut depth impacts effort and heating/wear:


The WoodOwl has a 0.06"/turn screw (single-threaded at 0.06" pitch) and 3 flutes, so it takes 0.02" cuts.
The Fisch has a 0.05"/turn screw (single-threaded at 0.05" pitch) and 2 flutes, so it takes 0.025" cuts.
The Jennings has a 0.1"/turn screw (double-threaded at 0.05" pitch) and 2 flutes, so it takes 0.05" cuts.
The LV has a 0.07"/turn screw (single-threaded at 0.07" pitch) and 1 flute, so it takes a 0.07" cut.

Unsurprisingly the Fisch/TFWW and WoodOwl augers are very similar in use: They require similar effort to drive, heat up by about the same amount, and both leave clean holes in both species with very minimal tearing. I haven't used either long enough to have a sense of wear, but I suspect they'll end up comparable.

The Jennings is a beast to drive, and its teeth and scorers heat up more than either WoodOwl or Fisch. It's also much faster than Fisch/WoodOwl, but that's offset by the need to "rest" the woodworker and the tool between holes. It leaves a clean hole with the least tearing of all, though that may not be a fair comparison to the others as I've worked on the Jennings bit's scorers quite a bit.

The Brazilian-made LV is almost as difficult to drive as the Jennings, but it heats up significantly more, probably because it takes the most aggressive cut and concentrates all of the heat in one flute. LV cautions that this bit can overheat to the point of detempering when used in dry hardwoods, and they aren't joking. It leaves more tearing than any of the other 3 bits, though it still leaves a good quality hole IMO (far better than a hardware store auger). It's also quite a bit cheaper than either of the other 2 new options and quite serviceable, particularly if you're willing to do your own sharpening.

In terms of weight the bits aren't directly comparable as the WoodOwl is longer than the others. With that said all are made of steel with similar density, so a lot can be learned by looking at the cross section. The WoodOwl has very similar flute thickness to the two Jennings-pattern bits (Jennings and Fisch), though it has a slightly "heavier" cross-section than either due to the presence of the 3rd flute. All 3 (WoodOwl, Fisch, Jennings) are much lighter than the Brazilian-made LV. The LV only has a single flute, but it's about 5X as thick as the others.

My overall impression of the WoodOwl is that it's a very good quality modern auger, that achieves ease-of-use and avoids heating by advancing relatively slowly and taking shallow cuts. I can easily see how it would cut faster than either the Jennings or the LV on a cordless driver, by allowing the drill motor to run faster and therefore closer to its optimum. It's interesting that both of the modern high-end makers (Fisch and WoodOwl) have landed on basically the same formula.
He Patrick, how did you determine the tendency for the bits to heat up during use? Just a finger feel sort of thing? How much does the actual feed rate depend on the axial force supplied by you as compared to the screw device, the cutting angles, the flute design, etc?

[Patrick Chase]

He Patrick, how did you determine the tendency for the bits to heat up during use? Just a finger feel sort of thing? How much does the actual feed rate depend on the axial force supplied by you as compared to the screw device, the cutting angles, the flute design, etc?

Yes, "fingertip measurements". That's why I described it as "impressions" rather than a review.

I tried my best to advance all of the bits at ~360 deg/sec (one full turn of the brace per second). Note that this means that the Jennings took ~30 sec to bore through a 12/4 board, while the Fisch took about a minute, so the comparison is "unfair" in that respect.

[Mike Holbrook]

I believe that testing information has to have constants to provide meaning. If a bit tries to advance too fast in hard wood the screw threads can rip out the wood and just spin in place. A bit spinning in place is not faster than anything. This is in fact what I have seen repeatedly happen when people are attempting to drill a large number of deep holes in very hard wood in chair and bench classes. Once the bit starts spinning in place it heats up much faster, then gets dull fast too. Again this does not tend to happen with more experienced woodworkers who are not in a hurry to get a buncch of deep holes done for a class within a limited time frame. The "other post" was made by someone having trouble getting results with specific bits in an electric drill, making dog holes in a bench. The other poster specifically said his bit was running too fast and too hard to make proper holes.

Another factor, in my experience, has to do with the point Pat makes. Just as faster drilling speed often results in the bit heating up faster, "too much" pressure applied to the bit through the drill producess the same result. Bits moving faster through hardwood may actually require more pressure to keep them on track. Faster speeds and more pressure cause more friction. I agree that the threads on the bit need to be designed for specific turn rates, both at the flutes and the auger screw.

[steven c newman]

One other point...Jennings made two different threads....a fine thread FOR hardwood, and a coarse thread for softwoods.

[Patrick Chase]

One other point...Jennings made two different threads....a fine thread FOR hardwood, and a coarse thread for softwoods.

I'm not sure which my Jennings bit have to be honest. The thread is finely pitched (20 tpi) and it holds like crazy in very hardwood I've tried, including rock maple. I don't push down on my augurs at all, and yet I've never had it strip. It's double-threaded, though, so it takes a really aggressive cut despite the fine thread. You would never want to use one of these with a powered drill for that reason, but they work fine on a brace.

Does anybody out there know they have the Jennings "fine thread" augurs, and if so can you measure the pitch and advance rate?

[Patrick Chase]

I believe that testing information has to have constants to provide meaning. If a bit tries to advance too fast in hard wood the screw threads can rip out the wood and just spin in place. A bit spinning in place is not faster than anything. This is in fact what I have seen repeatedly happen when people are attempting to drill a large number of deep holes in very hard wood in chair and bench classes.

That's certainly a concern, but there's more to it than advance rate. Cutter sharpness and particularly relief angle are hugely important. When I've seen that happen it has invariably been a symptom of the cutter not having enough relief, usually because some "tool genius" decided to sharpen by filing the top of the flute instead of the cutting face. When that relief angle is too low the screw ends up having to compress the work behind the edge to get it to cut (same reason we have to push down to get worn plane blades to cut) and that puts a lot more load on the screw.

I didn't go into that in my post for the simple reason that my augurs have properly ground cutters, and none of them (including the softwood-optimized LV) showed so much as a hint of that problem in 12/4 Maple. I expect that the top 3 (WoodOwl, Fisch, Jennings) wouldn't have that problem with any realistic project wood, given that they have a lot better threading than the LV.



Once the bit starts spinning in place it heats up much faster, then gets dull fast too. Again this does not tend to happen with more experienced woodworkers who are not in a hurry to get a buncch of deep holes done for a class within a limited time frame. The "other post" was made by someone having trouble getting results with specific bits in an electric drill, making dog holes in a bench. The other poster specifically said his bit was running too fast and too hard to make proper holes.

To be clear, I was boring at 10-20 sec/inch (depending on bit) which actually respectably quick. I doubt that many people in your classes go faster than that. Electric drills can go faster, and the WoodOwl (and Fisch) will work better when used that way because of their slower thread, but I actually like my 0.1"/turn Jennings bits. The screws hold just fine, and they get the job done quickly and leave a clean hole.



Another factor, in my experience, has to do with the point Pat makes. Just as faster drilling speed often results in the bit heating up faster, "too much" pressure applied to the bit through the drill producess the same result. Bits moving faster through hardwood may actually require more pressure to keep them on track. Faster speeds and more pressure cause more friction. I agree that the threads on the bit need to be designed for specific turn rates, both at the flutes and the auger screw.

Lack of relief/clearance in the cutter geometry also has this effect, since the screw must develop enough pressure to compress the wood behind the edge before it will cut. If an augur needs to be "pushed" to get it to cut then the right answer is to stop and sharpen, regrinding the relief as needed. Unfortunately it appears that not many woodworkers actually understand how to sharpen an auger bit [sigh].

[steven c newman]

369067
Underneath the brace is a set I picked last May, a set of #100 and a few #101s
369068
from that same box came this set....
369069
These were the fine thread Jennings, and..
369070
These were the coarse threaded Jennings....also in that $10 box..
369071
Was a couple of Irwins.
369072
Close up of the Fine threaded Jennings.
Since I already have two full sets of Irwins ( up to a 22/16"!) I donated the jennings at a spring get together.
369073
The tool box I paid the $10 for...
369074
There was a LOT of other things in there, as well...
I also "picked" a small cardboard box for $2...had about 10 pounds of drill bits in it...Including a couple from Ford, for USAC. Was a decent weekend....