Wood Owl - Nail Chipper vs. Ultra Smooth Bits

Not having an auger bit of the correct size for my new monster holdfast, I ordered one from Amazon.  Christopher Schwarz has recommended these Wood Owl Ultra Smooth bits before, so I thought I would give it a try.

I thought I needed a 1 1/8" bit for my holdfast to correctly seat, but I didn't want to wait forever, so I also ordered a 1 1/4" bit, and thought I would try which one worked best with my holdfast.

The problem was that both of these bits weren't available in the Ultra Smooth configuration from whoever was shipping them to me.  They did, however, have the 1 1/8" bit in a slightly cheaper version called the Nail Chipper.

Nail Chipper vs. Ultra Smooth

The main difference is that the ultra smooth bit has what we would recognize as spurs, while the nail chipper doesn't.  Being that they were brand new, I didn't sharpen them, but imagine that the Nail Chipper would be easier to sharpen.

Nail Chipper vs. Ultra Smooth

There was no way I was going to try to drill holes bigger than an inch in my 5 1/2" thick oak bench top with a cordless drill, so I drug out my corded drill.  I briefly thought about chucking it up in my brace, but thought that was an awful lot of work for a practice hole.

The Nail Chipper in a piece of scrap of the same thickness as my benchtop.

The Nail Chipper baulked a little with my drill.  I found out there really isn't any backing the bit out to clear the chips this way.  It actually un-threaded the chuck on my drill when I tried that.  I just powered through.

I also found out that you really need to hold on to your drill in order to ensure the hole is straight.  Lucky thing I used a bit of scrap to practice on first.

Nail Chipper 1 1/8" hole.

The Ultra Smooth was a different story.  It powered all the way through and made it easy on my drill.  There was no difficulty whatsoever, even though this bit had a 1/8" larger diameter.  Feeling the hole, it indeed is much smoother than the hole left by the Nail Chipper.

Ultra Smooth 1 1/4" hole.

As it worked out, the 1 1/8" hole worked best with this holdfast.  I was a bit disappointed, as I really liked using the Ultra Smooth bit better. 

Mongo vs. Gramercy.

In the end, I think the smoothness of the hole matters very little in the operation of a holdfast.  The rougher hole works brilliantly, but I think the operation of the hole working better has more to do with the diameter rather than the quality.  However, if I ever need to buy another mongo drill bit, it will definitely be the Ultra Smooth.

Before I got carried away, I decided to stop after three of these giant holes to see where I need them.  I can always drill more, but fixing too many holes is more of a problem.