Sharpening and restoring vintage auger bits | Part 1 

Glad it helped !

Bryan, thanks for watching, glad you enjoyed it! Many more old tools on the way.

Glad you enjoyed it!

Thom, thank you, I'm so glad you enjoyed the video! I had a lot of fun making it.

Thanks again! My file came in today and I'm looking forward to getting all my auger bits sharp and working!

Thanks Tony, glad you found it useful!

Thanks @robwoodke6592 !

Thanks for watching and welcome to the channel!

Thank you very much @abdossett , glad you're enjoying the channel. Good luck with your projects!

Thanks! More on the way

Thanks @larsfrandsen2501 !

Thanks @robohippy ! Good luck!

Thanks Tungsten! Good luck with your restorations!

Thanks @joeteejoetee !

Thanks!

Glad it was helpful!

Thanks and good luck!

Thanks Shannon! I feel the same way :)

Glad you liked it!

Awesome! Good luck restoring!

@@thehandtoolworks thank you!

oh wow, that's quite a coincidence. glad karma brought you to the channel. that sounds like a great hand plane btw.

@@thehandtoolworks I think it might be my new favorite. There isn't much of the tool steel left on the Iron, I can see the forge weld maybe less than 1/8 inch but at 70yrs old I probably wont sharpen it enough to lose what's left. I think of the guy that wore this almost down to the nubs. I love bringing this old stuff back to life.

Good luck!

de nada, suerte en tu proyecto!

Thanks for watching!

Thanks @markiobook8639, Good luck !

Thanks and welcome to the channel!

Thank you! Cheers!

Thanks @deemdoubleu !

Good luck!

I rust blued mine. Turned out just fine!

hi Bruce, if there are small nicks in the cutting edge or spurs, I would just get the rest of the edge sharp and not worry too much about the nicks. The nicks will be removed over time as the bit is used and sharpened repeatedly.

Old auger bit threads typically have a 60 degree thread angle and match the UTS/SAE standard fairly well. The vast majority of my auger bits look like they would clean up fine with a standard SAE thread restoring file if needed. Wood is pretty forgiving and the tolerances here are probably not that important (compared to screw threads used in machines and the like). I usually do the bare minimum amount of filing, just enough to get the auger bit to pull into the wood, rather than trying to make the threads look perfect. Glad you're enjoying the channel!

Hiya Thanks for getting back to me so quickly - good information I'll get hold of the right file (as far as I can work out, the Whitworth files have a 55 degree thread angle, so I'm glad I asked) and give it a go

Hi @gregr1672, Yes it has 2 spurs. The spurs sever the wood fibers around the perimeter of the hole ahead of the cutting edges, making it easier for the cutting edges to lift out a wood shaving and giving a clean entry hole and relatively smooth inner bore. Good luck!

hi valter, it's called a thread restoring file. thanks for watching!

I wipe them down with 3-in-1 oil and/or paste wax after every few uses and always keep them free of saw dust during storage (this really goes for all my tools). Storage in a dry space, inside a drawer or in one of the vintage wooden boxes or canvas rolls they were originally sold in is perfect. Maintaining the dark patina (underneath the loose orange/brown surface rust) during restoration is also important because it protects the steel from further rusting.

for a brace or for an electric drill?

The tiniest gap between the work piece and the backer can allow tearout. I would make sure the two mating surfaces are perfectly flat using a hand plane or by sanding on a flat surface. The lead screw can also exert a lot of pressure on the backer, causing a tiny gap to open even with clamping; I would try getting the clamps as close to the hole as you can and add extra clamps if needed. Of course instead of using a backer you can always stop boring when the lead screw starts to poke out of the back then turn the piece around and drill from the other side to get a clean exit hole.

@@thehandtoolworks that makes sense. Frustrating that it's so finicky. But there you have it, two solutions. Thank you very much! Btw, I found your videos on sharpening truly excellent. Revelational in fact. Thank you

​@@thehandtoolworks Hi. I have another piece of advice I'd like to ask. I am using a semi sharpened (not my best work admittedly) 3/8 bit to drill a hole whose centre is 3/4 inch away from the end of my stock. I am using round stock thats fairly wet to drill into. A project I am into. Each time I drill with the brace, the wood cracks horizontally when the bit reaches between 1/2-3/4 of the way through the hole. I am not using undue pressure, and I am going very slowly. The wood types are all different, including maple. Any advice here? I'll admit to being disappointed and a little bit frustrated. Help? Thank you.

Hi @LitoGeorge, Sorry just saw this now. The lead screw always exerts some outward pressure as you drill and can cause the wood to split along the grain if the hole is close to the end of the work piece. Auger bits with nice long nickers/spurs mitigate this because they score the wood more deeply around the perimeter of the hole as you drill. It's a good idea to clamp the end of the work piece so that it can't split when drilling close to the end. Another solution is to pre-drill a pilot hole using something like a 1/8 in drill bit or smaller, then drill the full sized hole with the auger bit (the lead screw will still be able to pull into the wood as long as the diameter of the pilot hole isn't too large).

@@thehandtoolworks thanks for your answer. I will try the pilot hole today, as I ran into the problem again just two days ago. Seems to happen in both soft and hardwoods. I'll also try the clamp, though that might prove difficult in some of the pieces I am working with. I'll provide feedback. Cheers.

hi @rp6879, I go by muscle memory but one could use a bevel gauge to check the angle. In general it's ok just to get the bevel angle in the right ballpark and usually you can follow the existing bevel.

Augers lacking a spur can actually be useful for drilling into tough end grain

@@thehandtoolworks So it's not the worst thing to have atound?

It sounds like you might have a Scotch pattern auger bit. Those are usually for rougher work (eg landscaping timbers, construction) where the appearance of the hole isn't a big deal.

@@thehandtoolworks Now that I looked at scotch patterned augers, it looks like it. I am from Turkey so, it's unlikely the piece I have is actually made after scotch pattern but nvm. I just found it's so hard for me to turn it; even it's enough to cut me levels of sharp(2k sandpaper + stropped finish), in a soft wood like pine. Maybe my auger is small for the job, or I didn't do a good job of sharpening it right. Do you have a suggestion for troubleshooting why it might give me a struggle like mentioned above? Btw, thank you sir.

@@mizikacibalik what is the diameter of the auger bit?

@@thehandtoolworks I believe it's between 12-14 mm but didn't measured it

Does if feel like the auger is binding in the hole, ie the first few cm are fine but then it becomes very hard to turn? this could happen if someone previously tried to sharpen by filing the outside of the spurs instead of the inside. you could measure the diameter near the top with calipers and see if it gets wider a few cm down. Also, with a Scotch pattern, the corner where the spur meets the cutting edge has to be sharp or else it will crush the wood fibers instead of slicing - this is harder to sharpen correctly than a Jennings or Irwin pattern bit. To troubleshoot a bit, it usually helps to start drilling a hole very slowly and pay careful attention to how the lead screw, cutting edges, and spurs engage with the wood as they start to bite in. It can also help if you have another bit of the same type that works so that you can compare them visually and look for any differences in how they engage with the wood.

reading is hawrd. Poor guy.