How to Sharpen Tools : Sharpening a Drill Bit

How to sharpen a common drill bit; get professional tips and advice from an expert carpenter on how to sharpen carpentry tools in this free instructional video.

Expert: Fred Carson
Bio: Fred Carson has been professionally sharpening tools for more than twenty five years. He runs Carson's Saw Shop in Eugene, Oregon.
Filmmaker: max koetter

Category:

Howto & Style

Tags:

• sharpen
• sharpening
• tools
• grinding
• wheel
• hone
• stone
• scissors
• drill
• bits
• saws
• saw
• blades

[rolfethered]

WOW. Thanks Willie and Expert Village. I live in the Eugene Area, and now I know who has been screwing up the drill bits that people bring to me for proper angles. I thoght it was stange to have so many with rounded and uneven relieves. I gues if your desprate and broke you could do things this way. Again, WOW.

[22rifle]

@yonmoore What I object to here is a guy carelessly grinding away at stuff and not only charging for it, but passing himself off as an expert. Yeah, he has been in business twentyfivethirtyyears, but so have other sharpening shops that do horrible work. As I watch his videos I am appalled at the thought of all the people who pay this guy, never realizing he is a hack and doing crappy work.

[Jeepynator]

Maybe really good on wood application but on metal application you have a wrong move...never turn the drill bit as it does not give a good clearance that cause the sharpen edge no touching the drilled material...clearence is made by grinding down the back face of the cutting edge so the cutting edge is the first to contact with the drilled material

[sharonnnmike]

Thanks this will save money make work easy

[azrios]

I use a Darex bench grinder with a diamond wheel.... takes the guess work out (more accurate) and you remove less material. Not dissing doing it by hand, but it does take skill and practice....

[DownhillAllTheWay]

What's the object of sharpening a drill? - to look at it under a microscope and marvel at its precision and exactitude - or to drill holes? Maybe for super-precision work with machine tools, you need a sharpening jig, but for the average guy in his workshop, Willie is spot on!

[annalamdesabbat777]

My old boss did this once. Drill bit was so far off, Wouldn't even drill in wood.

[bwatteful]

Haha you guys that are talking ol' Willie down have no idea! He's been doing it for 25 years! I've been doing it for 6 months and my bits come out more than well enough to use in metal and stay sharp for a while. So I'm sure he knows what he's doing. I guess most people can't tell a true craftsman when they see one. You guys need to get rid of your jigs and learn how to execute all areas of the craft, not just using the bit then doing what the drill doctor tells you to do

[stangTCODE]

A MASTER AT HIS TRADE ,,GREAT WORK & CHARACTER...

[Mrpsychotehpyro]

If i grind drills, id love to do the "inside cut" , but sadly a largish bench grinder cannot do that on most common sizes of drills.

Doing the grinding on a cutting wheel is clever.....because unlike my bench grinder it gets the job done.

And a hole thats going to get a screw through needs to be precise to a couple of thou, right ?

Yeah, f course bitch ....

Quit your bitching, a drill makes a hole, not a precision fit.

Use reamers, boring bars and heads.....

[MrFrago666]

Call me an as_hat, but I sharpen my bits by reversing the rotation of drill press, angle the platform to what looks right, clamp on a piece of wood that has a remnant of a worn down metal cutting circular saw blade attached and running the drill at highest speed, lightly press down on the blade with the bit. Doesn't sharpen them like new, but it gets them cutting again.

It's very tedious, but for the inside, I use a Dremal with a grinding wheel.