How to drill hardened steel

What is the best way to drill through hardened steel? - The question that masters ask when such a need arises. For example, there was a need to check a hardened steel blade... I’ll show you how I personally do this and what drills I use.

Making a homemade drill

You will need carbide, tungsten-cobalt rods, the people will win.

But in reality it won't beat this VK8.

Clamp it in a hand vise.

And we make a drill from the rod, grinding off the excess. It is very difficult to sharpen hard alloys on a regular whetstone; I use a diamond.
We sharpen two planes, like for a flat-head screwdriver.

We process the second edge.

The result is a feather like this. Now let's sharpen the cutting edges.

The result is a drill for hardened metals.

Homemade drills are ready. You need to make several of them at once, since they quickly become dull and you won’t have to run around sharpening them every time.
Of course, you could use regular carbide drills, but you still had to resharpen them, and why redo them when you can make your own.

Drilling a hole in hardened steel

We will drill with a hardened saw using a quick cutter.

Add a drop of oil and start drilling at low speed.It is not necessary to core; with this sharpening, the drill does not slip on the metal.

We change the cutting part.

Half a minute and a hole is drilled in the hardened steel.

Let's complicate our experiment and take stronger, harder, high-speed steel CHS.
Add a drop of oil again. We drill for five seconds and the cutting edge becomes dull, which means we need to take another drill, which is what I did. Each time I take a different drill.

The hard alloy is very brittle and very often crumbles at the end. Just two minutes and a hole is made in the hardened steel.

Thank you all for your attention!

Watch the video