Thread: What is this affliction? (and a question about a drill bit)

I thought I was a collector and user of bladed weapons of woodworking. Yet somehow whenever I needed a drill or brace it was always to hand.

The fact that this almost never happens in my shed should have alerted me to that fact that something was amiss:




Do these things spring, fully formed, from collections of sawdust, spider carcasses and mouse droppings? How did this assemblage come into being?


Now that I’ve spotted them I’ll never find them when I need them - no doubt they’ll retreat from whence they came.

It addition to this conundrum: in amongst the many ancient drill bits that seem also to have accumulated in my shed is this fellow:



Which to my rheumy eyes looks like an early equivalent of a carbide tile/glass bit. Is this the case? It is marked "ELBERFELD" with a freemason's symbol on one side, and "P.L.S HMIDT" on the other.

There is another similar bit (a Mathieson) that doesn't have the slight twist present in this one.

Yours in confusion,
Chris