2024 test14 productsBlades, Bits & Abrasives
Which Drill Bit Brand Wins?
We compared 14 drill bit options head to head. Viking Drill and Tool came out on top. See the measured results, the runner-up, the budget pick, and a link to the full test video.
Some figures on this page were transcribed from the test video and have not been independently re-verified. Treat the numbers as a close guide and watch the full video for the exact readings.
Winner
Viking Drill and Tool
Price shown in test: $200 (most expensive brand tested)
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Budget pick
Bosch
Price shown in test: $34 for 14 bits
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The measured results
Every number below is read straight from the test. Scroll sideways to see all measurements. Products are listed in the order they finished.
| Product | Made_in | Material | Mild_steel_attempt 1_sec | Spring_steel_attempt 1_sec | Mild_steel_retest_sec | Failure_torque_inlb | Spring_steel_retest_sec | Spring_steel_retest |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1Viking Drill and Tool$200 (most expensive brand tested) | USA | M42 cobalt, 135 degree split point | 9.96 (fastest of all bits on the first mild steel test, no visible damage) | 22.72, approximately (transcript garbled as '22.72% 6 seconds'; still described as very fast) | 12.65, finished first in this retest ('the Viking finished in first') | 157 (just a little below average) | not tested | not tested |
| 2Bosch$34 for 14 bits | China | M42 cobalt, 8% cobalt alloy, thick web helix design | 11.41 (tied with Irwin for third place at that point in the video, no visible damage) | not tested | 14.6 (a fraction of a second slower than Irwin's retest, moved into third place) | 215, by far the strongest bit at the time it was tested; final recap confirms it as second strongest overall behind Century | not tested | not tested |
| 3DeWalt high-speed steel (HSS)$11 for 14 bits (least expensive brand tested) | Thailand | high-speed steel, 135 degree split point, no-spin shank with flats, claimed strong core to resist breaking | 10.53, second fastest overall behind only the Viking, no visible damage | 26.4, more than twice its mild-steel time, became stuck at breakthrough | not tested | 191 (15.9 ft lb), noticeably stronger than the Somada in the same test | 37.81, described as a 72 percent loss in performance, with heavy wear and tear | not tested |
| 4Drill Hog$140 for 29 bits | USA | solid cobalt M42+ steel, 135 degree split point, three flat sides to prevent chuck spin | 10.63, only a tenth of a second slower than the DeWalt HSS, no visible damage | 23.65 (transcript caption split the decimal across a line break, joined as one continuous reading) | 13.21, finished third in this retest behind Viking and Comoware | 212, quite a bit stronger than average, third strongest in the final recap | 19.67 (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 | not tested |
| 5Comoware$80 for 29 bits | China | 135 degree cobalt split points, designed for hardened metal, stainless steel, cast iron, wood and plastic | 11.2, no visible damage aside from some material leftovers on the tip | 22.1, actually faster than the Cle-Line on spring steel at this point | 12.7, described as 'the much more affordable kware was almost as fast' as the Viking, second place in this retest | 131, drills fast but not as strong as some other brands | 18.48, took the lead from the Milwaukee, very small amount of wear | not tested |
| 6Century$150 for 29 bits | USA | 5% industrial quality M35 cobalt, claims up to 12 times longer life than average consumer grade HSS, 135 degree quick-cut point | 17, described elsewhere in the transcript as 'handling mild steel just fine but not nearly as fast as some of the other brands' | 24.84, a little faster than average | just over 24, still trailing most of the pack | 225, the strongest bit in the entire test despite not being the fastest cutter | not tested | not tested |
| 7Cle-Line$76 for 15 bits | USA | 135 degree cobalt split points | 10.99, moved into second place behind the DeWalt HSS at that point in the video, no visible damage | 23.8, still performing well | not tested | 121 (transcript renders this brand as 'glue line' at this point), gave up quite a bit sooner than average | 20.6, moved into third place just behind the Irwin, very small amount of wear | not tested |
| 8DeWalt Cobalt (Pilot Point)$29 (dual cobalt bits, more than twice the price of the high-speed-steel bits) | China and Germany (the specific 3/8 in bit tested was made in Germany) | cobalt with a Pilot Point tip, claims four times the life in stainless steel versus the high-speed steel version | 11.15, moved into second place behind the DeWalt HSS bit, no visible damage | 22.72 (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 | 14.34, a little faster than the Irwin's retest of 14.45 | 168, quite a bit better than the Ryobi and Irwin in the same test | not tested | not tested |
| 9Milwaukee$40 for 15 bits | China | 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 | 12.55, still very sharp afterward | 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 | approximately 17.1 (transcript reads '17.1 n seconds') | 187, better than the LW in the same test | 19.25, moved into first place again at that point, small amount of wear | not tested |
| 10Irwin Cobalt$28 for 15 bits | China | cobalt, 135 degree split point | 11.41, less than a second slower than the DeWalt HSS, no visible damage | 24.9, fast enough to take the lead from the DeWalt HSS at that point | 14.45, took the lead from the Somada in this retest | 88, gave up sooner than the Ryobi in the same test, the weakest result recorded | not tested | not tested |
| 11Warrior$70 for 29 bits, sold at Harbor Freight | China | cobalt, 135 degree split point | 15.12, no visible damage | 24.11, a pretty decent time considering the hardness of the test piece | approximately 15.79 (transcript reads '1579 seconds', read with an implied decimal since it is close to the original 15.12 second time) | 141 | 23.3, still faster than average, experienced quite a bit of chipping damage though the reviewer notes the resulting edge might not hurt performance | not tested |
| 12LWCUSNJ$38 for 19 pieces | China | claims to be an M42 bit, 135 degree split point, claims 10 times the life | 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 | 14.7, the fastest time recorded at that point after being resharpened, but described as too brittle to compete and again heavily damaged | 17.86 (transcript reads '17.86%', read as seconds), still benefiting from resharpening but too damaged to compete with the top bits | 181, described as extremely brittle and easy to chip despite this decent torque figure | 25.7, lost a lot of speed and had by far the most damage of all the drill bits tested up to that point | not tested |
| 13Somada$15 for 14 bits | China | M35 cobalt, 135 degree split point, designed for hard materials (stainless steel, cast iron, high temperature alloys) as well as softer materials (plastics, wood) | 15.84, roughly half again slower than the DeWalt HSS, with leftover material stuck on the leading edge of the bit tip | 44.6, about three times its mild-steel time, one of the slowest bits tested but did not give up | not tested | 173 (14.4 ft lb), notably weaker than the DeWalt HSS in the same test | 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 | not tested |
| 14Ryobi Titanium | not tested | high-speed steel with a titanium coating | 13 | 50, four times its mild-steel time, described as needing that much longer for the spring steel | 26.39, was not able to drill through the spring steel twice in a row but did complete a mild steel retest at this time | 92, gave up very early, among the weakest results in the test | not tested | unable to complete a second spring steel hole |
How it was tested
- drilling speed through 1/2 inch mild steel (single attempt, RPM 600, approximately 175 lb downward force)
- drilling speed through spring steel (RPM 340, approximately 220 lb downward force), first pass
- drilling speed and performance loss on a second, fresh piece of spring steel (back-to-back durability test)
- a repeated mild steel drilling attempt for several brands late in the video (retest/back-to-back durability)
- failure torque test using 1/4 inch (6.5 mm) bits to measure the load at which each bit breaks
“the Viking Drill and Tool came out on top with an average finish at 3.4”