Buy the Freud PB-107B if hole quality matters, and the Irwin Marples 14-piece set if having the size matters more. That is the real decision in this category, and it is not the one the boxes are marketed on. The Freud gives you seven forged bits from 1/4 to 1 in with a serrated shear rim; the Irwin gives you fourteen carbon-steel bits up to a full 2 in for less money. One is a better bit, the other is a better shelf. The WEN FB5114is the pick if you want the Irwin's range with a published HSS specification, and the Fisch wave cutter set is the one to buy once if you work in metric and intend never to buy Forstner bits again.
Piece count is how these sets are sold and it is close to the least useful number on the box. A 16-piece set with soft edges and an inconsistent grind is not better value than seven bits that cut cleanly — it is sixteen chances to find out which of them was ground properly. What follows is what to read instead.
What a Forstner bit is for, and what it is not for
A Forstner bit cuts with a continuous or serrated rim that scribes the circumference, and a pair of cutters that pare the waste inside it. That geometry is why it does four things no twist bit, spade bit or auger can:
- A flat-bottomed hole. A stopped hole for a hinge cup, a shelf pin, a bench-dog hole or a knockdown fitting needs a flat bottom, not a cone.
- Clean walls in face grain. The rim severs the fibers before the cutters lift them, so the hole does not blow out at the surface. This is what makes it the bit for holes that show.
- Overlapping and off-edge holes. Because the rim guides the bit rather than a point, a Forstner will cut a hole that overlaps an existing one, or that hangs half off the edge of a board, where a twist bit simply wanders.
- Angled entry.Same reason — the rim lands before the cutters bite, so it can start on a sloped surface.
What it is not for: deep holes and fast holes. A Forstner has no chip ejection to speak of, so a deep hole means backing out repeatedly to clear it, and the friction builds heat. For a through-hole in construction lumber an auger or a spade bit is faster, cheaper and the right answer. For a long dowel hole, a brad-point twist bit clears its own chips. The Forstner earns its keep on the holes you can see.
The criteria, in the order they matter
- Steel. Carbon steel, HSS or carbide-tipped, in that order of durability and price. Carbon steel takes a keen edge and loses it quickly, especially if it gets hot; HSS tolerates heat, which is exactly what a big bit in hardwood generates. Three of the five sets here are carbon steel, and that is the honest reason they cost what they cost.
- Rim design. A plain continuous rim is quiet and clean in softwood. A serrated or wave rim reduces contact area and cuts heat and juddering, which is what keeps a 1-1/2 in or 50 mm bit controllable in hard maple. Above about 1 in, the rim design matters more than the steel.
- The sizes you actually use. Most furniture work lives between 1/4 in and 1 in, plus one or two large sizes for hardware. 35 mm matters specifically if you fit euro hinges. A set that covers your real sizes well beats a set that covers every size badly.
- Shank diameter. A reduced shank lets a 2 in bit run in a 3/8 in chuck. A uniform large shank is convenient on a drill press and awkward on a small cordless drill.
The speed rule that decides how long any of these last
Forstner bits want to run slow, and the bigger the bit the slower it goes. The rim is cutting at the circumference, so the rim speed climbs with diameter at the same spindle RPM — a 2 in bit at the speed that suits a 1/4 in bit is a burnishing tool, not a cutting one. Burned edges are the most common way a new set gets ruined, and it is almost always the drill press pulley rather than the bit at fault.
That is also why a drill press beats a hand drill for anything above about 1 in: not because the hand drill lacks power, but because it lacks a slow speed and a quill to keep the bit square. Our drill press roundup goes through the speed ranges each machine publishes, and the same page explains why the slowest step on the pulley chart is the one that matters for large bits and hole saws.
Prices below come from our live price feed and carry the date they were pulled. Forstner sets discount erratically, and the gap between the premium and budget ends of this page is large enough that the current number should drive the decision.
The five side by side
Published manufacturer and listing specifications for the five sets ranked above. The steel column is the one that predicts how the set feels after a year.
| Set | Pieces / range | Steel | Rim | Shank |
|---|
| Freud PB-107B | 7 / 1/4–1 in | Forged hardened steel | Serrated shear edge | 1/4, 5/16, 3/8 in |
| Irwin Marples 14-pc | 14 / 1/4–2 in | Carbon steel | Not published | Reduced, fits 3/8 in |
| Fisch wave cutter 16-pc | 16 / 12–50 mm | Not published (Austria) | Wave cutter | Not published |
| WEN FB5114 | 14 / 1/4–2 in | HSS | Serrated on larger sizes | 3/8 in throughout |
| Comoware 16-pc | 16 / 1/4–2-1/8 in | Carbon steel, heat-treated | Not published | Not published |
Metric or imperial is a real decision, not a detail
The Fisch set is metric only, 12 to 50 mm. If your hardware is metric — and euro hinge cups at 35 mm are the common case — that is an advantage, because the size you need is a size in the set. If your work is imperial, every hole becomes a conversion: 3/4 in is 19.05 mm and the nearest bit in a metric set is 19 mm, which is close and is the wrong answer for a dowel that has to be a press fit.
There is no clever way around this. Buy the system your stock, your hardware and your existing dowels live in. If you genuinely work in both, the cheap route is an imperial set plus the one or two metric sizes your hardware needs, bought individually.
Why carbon steel is not automatically the wrong choice
Three of these five sets are carbon steel, and the reflex is to call that a defect. It is more useful to call it a duty cycle. Carbon steel sharpens easily, holds a fine edge, and gives that edge up quickly under heat. For plywood, MDF, plastics and the occasional construction job — all of which chew edges for no return — a cheap carbon-steel bit you treat as a consumable is a rational purchase, and the Comoware set exists for exactly that reader.
Where it goes wrong is hardwood at volume. Hard maple and white oak generate the heat carbon steel cannot take, and a dulled Forstner does not merely cut slowly — it burnishes, scorches the hole wall and then grabs. If you drill hardwood every week, the Freud or the WEN is the cheaper tool over a year, which is the same argument we make about chisel steel: the purchase price is not the cost.
Honing a Forstner bit, which almost nobody does
A Forstner bit is sharpened on the insideof the rim and on the top faces of the cutters, never on the outside of the rim — grind the outside and you reduce the diameter, and the bit no longer drills the size stamped on it. A small diamond file or a slip stone, a few strokes on each cutter and inside the rim, restores most of a budget set out of the box.
It is worth doing on arrival with any set below about $60, because inconsistent grinding is the real difference between the price tiers. The same sharpening logic we go through in how to sharpen chisels applies: the edge geometry is the tool, and factory edges are a starting point rather than a finished product.
Clamp the work and back the hole
Two habits that make any of these sets perform better than the next tier up. First, clamp the workpiece — a large Forstner that grabs will spin a board, and that is the injury in this category. Second, put a sacrificial backer under a through-hole: the rim exits cleanly into the backer instead of blowing the fibers out of the underside, and the difference on plywood is dramatic.
If the holes are for bench dogs or a vise installation, both habits matter more because the stock is thick and the bit is large. We cover the layout side of that in how to mount a bench vise and the drilling machine itself in the drill press roundup.
The sizes a furniture shop actually reaches for
Buying by piece count hides the fact that most sets contain bits you will never fit in a chuck. The sizes that come up repeatedly in furniture and cabinet work are narrower than any of these boxes:
- 1/4 in and 3/8 in— dowel holes, shelf pins on an imperial jig, and the pilot recesses for plugged screws. These are the two bits that wear out first, which is why the Irwin set including a second 1/4 in bit is a more thoughtful inclusion than it looks.
- 1/2 in and 3/4 in— bench-dog holes, through-wires, and the start of a hand-cut mortise when you are drilling out the waste before paring.
- 35 mm— euro hinge cups, and the one case where a metric set stops being an inconvenience and becomes the correct purchase.
- One large size, 1-1/2 in to 2 in— cable pass-throughs, lamp bases, and the occasional piece of hardware. Owned for the once-a-project job, not for daily use, which is why a budget bit in this size is a perfectly rational choice.
If that list describes your work, a seven-piece set plus one large bit bought individually beats a sixteen-piece set, and it will cut better holes. The piece count only wins when you genuinely cannot predict which diameter the next project needs.
Where these numbers come from
The piece counts, diameter ranges, steel types, rim designs, shank sizes and overall lengths above are the manufacturers' own published specifications, taken from each product's live listing and the manufacturer's own description, and cited per set in Sources. Where a manufacturer does not publish a figure — rim design on three sets, steel type on the Fisch — the table says so rather than inventing one. We have not measured hole roundness, wall finish or edge life in a lab; we do not have one, and our methodology page says so plainly. Prices come from the live price feed and carry the date they were pulled.
