I wasn’t really planning to do anything today, but when I got home, I decided to tackle the task of drilling the last hole into the endgrain of the lousy stretcher I’d just made. I didn’t think that I’d make much progress given how poorly it went last time, but I figured that any time spent now will reduce time later.

1/3 of the way in, I thought things through. The bits I was using were kind of dull, and that’s bad. My only alternative was a set of really good Bosch titanium-coated twist bits that I’d picked up somewhere. I decided to throw the 3/8″ one at the task to see if it was going to do any better.

Simply putting the bit in a brace was enough to give me a good feeling. This sucker was actually sharp, like something that someone actually intended for real use. It cut through the remaining two thirds of the endgrain like lightning.

The lesson learned today was that it looks like Lee Valley is going to get yet more of my dough, because I need a good set of brad-point bits, and an auger bit file so that I can actually get those things sharp.