Best Drill Bit Sharpeners of 2026

Split point is the reason this one earns the top spot. A plain point skates across steel until it finds a bite; grind a small facet across the tip and the bit starts cutting where you put it. The 500X both restores an existing split point and cuts a new one, and the Push to Stop port ends the grind before the facet runs long, which is the mistake that turns a useful bit into a scraper.

Two point angles cover most of what sits in a home index: 118 degrees is the grind your bits came with, and 135 holds up better in hard material and stays on line in a handheld drill. The chuck takes 3/32 to 1/2 inch, where nearly every bit people actually wear out lives, and a 3/4-inch chuck is sold separately for the ones that don't. Carbide, cobalt, black oxide, TiN and masonry bits all go through it on the same diamond wheel.

Setup is where we paid closest attention, because alignment is where a sharpener either works or quietly ruins an afternoon's worth of bits. Of the electric models here this is the one that asks least: the chuck indexes the bit, and by the third or fourth one you stop thinking about the sequence. One thing to know before the first bit: the white dots on the chuck aren't the alignment marks, whatever they look like, so follow the manual's line instead.

In the box you get the 1/2-inch chuck, a 180-grit diamond wheel already fitted, a hub wrench and a six-foot cord, backed by a three-year warranty. No bench grinder to mount, no second jig to buy. It lives within arm's reach of the drill press here, which is the highest compliment a shop tool gets.

A quarter inch doesn't sound like much until the bit you need is 5/8. The 750X takes 3/32 to 3/4 inch out of the box, the widest capacity of the electric machines here, so the big twist bits, the ones that actually hurt to replace, stay in service instead of the bin.

The other half of the case is the dial. Point angle runs continuously from 115 to 140 degrees rather than clicking between two detents, which matters most for a bit somebody already reground by hand at an odd angle. You can meet it where it is or bring it back to a consistent 135, instead of forcing it into the only setting the machine offers. Split points are created or restored here too, using the same Push to Stop port as the 500X.

The manual is the weak link. Plan on a video and two or three tired bits to practice on before anything good goes in the chuck, because the alignment step is the one that decides whether you get an edge or a stub. Give it that hour and the sequence sticks; we stopped checking the instructions after the first handful.

It is the pick for the drawer with 5/8 and 3/4 bits in it, or an index that has been hand-ground to odd angles over the years. Everything under half an inch, the 500X handles just as well.

Eighteen pounds is the first thing you notice, and it is the trade the VEVOR asks you to make. This is a machine that lives on a bench, not something you tuck in a drawer beside the drill. In exchange it holds a bit the way a machine tool holds work: clamped, indexed, and repeatable.

Bits go into one of 11 collets covering 3 to 13 mm, and the collet seats in a chuck that indexes to the wheel, so the same geometry comes back every time. Point angle runs 95 to 135 degrees, which means a 135-degree split-point set stays a 135-degree split-point set instead of being talked into whatever the machine is set to. A CBN wheel and a 120-watt motor turning at 4,500 rpm are the other half of that: hard wheel, high speed, light passes.

Repeatability is the whole case for it. Sharpening one bit is easy; sharpening forty to the same point is where machines fall apart, and this is the one here that holds the line best. If you keep an index sharp for a shop or a serious garage, that consistency is worth both the bench space and the outlay.

Day to day it is a pleasure in the way machine tools often are: marked collets, a chuck that seats with a twist, and nothing plastic in the parts that hold the bit. It is also the least fiddly of the larger machines to feed, which is why it stayed set up rather than going back in its box.

This sits at the low end of the powered machines here, and for a household with a drawer of tired bits that is most of the argument. It takes 1/8 to 15/32 inch across 19 sizes, through a positioning plate that sets the angle for you, and the grinding wheel is built in, so there is nothing else to buy before the first bit.

The catch is that the angle is fixed at 130 degrees. Most hardware-store sets are ground to 118, and this will regrind them to 130, which is a perfectly serviceable general-purpose point but no longer a match for the rest of the set. Rescuing neglected bits, that trade is worth making. Maintaining a matched index, it isn't.

Two things to know before you start. Small bits need a light hand: hold anything under 1/8 inch against that wheel and it can be gone before you have looked properly. And it is slower per bit than the collet machines, so this is a sharpener for a Saturday afternoon rather than a production bench. The plate does take the guesswork out of the angle, which is more than we expected at this end of the range.

This is the jig we point Tormek owners to, and there's no point pretending it's anything else. The DBS-22 is built to run on a water-cooled Tormek base, and everything about it assumes that machine is already bolted to your bench.

What it does is geometry the rest of this group can't touch: four flat facets meeting at a chisel edge, both cutting edges ground equally, point angle anywhere from 90 to 150 degrees, and clearance set to 7, 9, 11 or 14. Because the wheel runs wet, the tip never gets hot enough to lose its temper, and a bit that comes off this jig doesn't walk when it touches metal.

The holder's cast alignment marks are rounded enough that getting a bit dead square takes practice, and the first few bits are a lesson in patience. Anyone with a Tormek knows the pattern: that system rewards setup and punishes hurry, and this jig is no exception. Give it an evening and the payoff is a point you can't buy off a shelf.

The first hour with this one isn't sharpening, it's mounting. You have to fix it to a bench at the right angle and the right distance from the grinding wheel, and nothing in the box does that positioning for you. Get it wrong and every bit comes off lopsided, which is why the setup deserves more care than the sharpening does.

Once it's set, it earns the space. The adjustment will meet nearly any point angle you own, it handles countersinks as well as bits, and the non-marking depth stop keeps the tip where you put it. Bits from 1/8 inch up come out cutting; below that, it's more trouble than it's worth.

Nothing in the box teaches you to use it. The printed sheet is close to useless, so plan on a video and a handful of scrap bits to learn the sequence, because that is the difference between a tool that works and a tool that ruins a set.

What the money buys is a sharpener that costs less than a decent set of bits and can keep that set cutting for years. What it asks in return is an evening of setup and a tolerance for fiddling. If that's a fair trade, it's the cheapest route to sharp bits on this page; if you want them tonight, one of the electric machines gets you there.

Two grinding wheels come in the box, and the reason is more interesting than the fact. Cobalt bits wear a brown corundum wheel faster than plain steel does, so the second wheel is a consumable, not a bonus. It's an honest thing to include on a machine this cheap, and it tells you what the maker expects you to be sharpening.

The rest is the same recipe as the other budget unit here: 1/8 to 15/32 inch across 19 sizes, a positioning plate that holds the angle so you only control the pressure, and a fixed 130-degree point. Two seconds in the slot and out again is how it's meant to be used, and for touching up a tired general-purpose bit that's plenty.

Longevity is the open question. The plate is stamped, the body is light, and the two parts that wear, the wheel and the slot that guides the bit, aren't overbuilt. Buy it as a second machine for the garage or as a cheap way to find out whether you'll actually sharpen bits, and it makes sense. Buy it as the last sharpener you'll own and you're likely to be disappointed.