Brad point bits - Norseman, Fuller, LV, other?

[Cameron Wood]

As an aside, it takes only a few minutes to put a brad point on a drill bit with a bench grinder.



Here's a few done by hand. A couple of commercial ones in the background. You sharpen drill bits anyway, right?

IMG_4196.jpeg

[Jonathan Jung]

Does anyone have experience with WoodRiver? They're on sale in June.

I have, they are terrible. Several out of the 29pc set are significantly wobbly, they break more easily than others, and dull quickly.

[Johannes Becker]

First of all, buying quality drills makes a difference and I am sure any of the ones you listed will do fine. I have some Fisch, LV, Colt FCE, Heller and a set of Fullers among other brands as brad point drills. The Fullers are my favorites in hardwood. They are excellent but some of that excellence may be that they only come out when I need a precise hole and hence they are still razor sharp. They did come individually dipped in protective coating as you see with router bits or machine tools so clearly the manufacturer thinks they should be and stay sharp. The Colt FCE appear to be better than others in being able to produce relatively clean exit holes in softwood (provided you keep the pressure down). The Hellers are amazing in that I bought the small metric set almost thirty years ago, used them on everything and they are still doing well.

Unfortunately there are not many comparison tests out there providing data rather than anecdotes. Here is one I looked at before I bought my set of Fullers: http://www.woodworking.org/WC/GArchi...drillbits.html

And to confuse the topic some more, many manufacturers like Fuller and especially Fisch produce different brad point bits at different price levels. Some of them are specialty bits but Fisch is clearly having different features and quality levels when looking at their website.

[Mike Henderson]

I have the Norseman but they're not brad point. They've been very good bits for me. I never tried the Fisch.

Mike

[Larry Frank]

I have a Colt set that performs extremely well.

[Bob Hinden]

I have been buying Fuller Brad Points Drill Bits for Hardwood bits here:

https://toolsforworkingwood.com/stor...item/MS-BPD.XX

They have sets and individual bits, both in imperial and metric. Made in the USA.

[Patty Hann]

I have the 28 piece Index by Fuller, the one Bob Hinden links to. I bought it a few years ago.
I have used the first two rows (smaller bits), never used the big ones (yet).
I thought (and still think) it was a good buy. I'm happy with it.

My second choice was the LV set. I Also I looked into Fisch Brad points
Some Fisch Brad points are now made in China/Taiwan ( I emailed Fisch a few years back and asked)... I don't know what the mfr-ing situation is at the moment.
But the Fuller ones are made in the US.

[Joe Adams]

I bought the 28pc Fuller set from Tools for Working Wood several years ago. They cut like butter and are arrow straight. Very pleased and highly recommend.