The hand brace that will outlive your cordless drill

Quick answer: A brace with a 10-inch sweep and a set of auger bits will bore holes from 1/4 inch to over an inch in wood, quietly, with more control than a cordless drill. A decent used one costs very little and lasts longer than you do. Check the chuck jaws and the ratchet before you buy.

Why this tool is still around

Your cordless drill has a battery with a life measured in years, a motor with brushes, a clutch and a circuit board. When one part dies, the drill usually goes in the trash. Sometimes the maker retires the battery platform and you're left with a very nice paperweight.

A brace is a crank. It has a chuck, a ratchet and a wooden head that spins on a spindle. Nothing in it wears out on any schedule a person will live to see. Plenty of braces working in shops today were made before anyone alive in your family was born. They've outlasted the men who bought them, which is the point.

That's the case. Now the honest part. If you've got forty deck screws to drive, pick up the drill and don't feel bad about it. The brace wins at a narrower job: boring clean, accurate holes in wood, especially big ones, where a cordless drill spins, kicks and chews the edge.

What you're buying

Look for a ratcheting brace. The ratchet lets you work against a wall, in a corner or between two joists, where the handle can't make a full circle. A cam ring near the chuck sets it to turn forward, backward or locked. Make sure it clicks and grabs in both directions.

The sweep is the diameter of the circle the handle makes. Ten inches is the common size and the one to get. A bigger sweep gives more leverage, and a smaller one fits tight spots. Ten covers most of what you'll do.

Check these before you hand over money:

• The chuck jaws. Open and close them. They should meet evenly with no gap and no wobble. Jaws worn out of true will never hold a bit straight.
• The crank. Sight down it. A bent crank means a bent life. Pass.
• The head. The wooden pad should spin freely. Hairline cracks are cosmetic. A split through the wood isn't.
• The ratchet. Surface rust is fine. A pawl that slips under load isn't.

Old Stanley and Millers Falls braces turn up at flea markets and estate sales all the time. Don't pay for a famous name. Pay for tight jaws and a ratchet that works.

Bits, and why the numbers matter

Braces take bits with a square, tapered tang. Those bits fit the "alligator" jaws inside the chuck and can't spin loose. Round-shank twist bits don't seat properly, so leave them for another tool.

The bits you want are auger bits. A screw tip on the end pulls the bit into the wood. Two spurs score the outline of the hole. Two cutters lift the waste, and the spiral flutes carry the chips out.

The size is stamped on the tang in sixteenths of an inch. A 4 is a quarter inch. An 8 is a half inch. A 16 is a full inch. Once you know that, you can read any bit in a bin without a ruler.

Roll each bit across a flat surface and watch the shank. A wobble means it's bent. Check the screw tip, too. If the threads are rounded off, the bit won't pull itself in and you'll be pushing the whole way. A bit with a crushed tip is usually not worth rescuing.

Good starter sizes are 1/4, 3/8, 1/2, 5/8 and 3/4 inch. Pick up the rest when a job calls for them. The five-tool tote is a good place to carry them so they don't rattle around and chip.

How to bore a straight hole

Mark the center with an awl. Press it in far enough to catch the screw tip. Skip this and the bit walks.

Set the tip in the dimple. Lean your chest or shoulder over the head so your weight does the pushing and your hands do the turning. Crank clockwise with the same speed you'd use to stir thick paint.

Check plumb. This is where beginners drift. Stand a small square on the wood beside the bit, then look at the bit against it. Check again after the first inch, when you can still correct. Or have someone stand to the side and call out the lean. Two views beat one.

Don't push. The screw tip pulls the bit in, and the spurs and cutters do the cutting. If you're leaning hard, the bit is dull. Long, curly chips coming up the flutes mean everything is working. Dust means it's time to sharpen.

Mind the exit. When the screw tip pokes through the back, stop. Flip the board and finish from the other side, and the hole comes out clean. Or clamp a scrap behind the work and bore straight through into it. Skip both and the back of your board will splinter like a dropped plate.

Control depth with a strip of tape on the bit. It's old and ugly and it works.

Keep it sharp, keep it oiled

A dull auger bit is the number one reason people give up on a brace. It's also easy to fix. A small auger file costs a few dollars. File the inside face of each spur and the top of each cutter. Leave the outside of the spurs alone, because that's what sets the hole size. A few light strokes and the bit bites again. The same habit that makes any tool better is covered in learn to sharpen and every tool you own gets better.

For the brace, put a drop of light oil in the ratchet and on the head spindle a couple of times a year. Rub the chuck threads with a little wax. Store bits in a roll or a tray, never loose in a drawer.

The other jobs it does

Put a screwdriver bit in the chuck and you have a driver with enormous torque. A frozen screw on an old hinge that strips under a cordless drill will often turn under a brace, because you're pushing with your whole body weight.

It's also quiet. Boring a hole at six in the morning with a baby asleep down the hall doesn't wake anyone. There's no cord to trip over and no battery to charge the night before.

It's a good tool to teach with, too. A kid can't hurt much with a hand-cranked bit, as long as the work is clamped down and an adult is standing there. Clamping and patience are lessons worth learning early. Measure first, mark clearly, then cut once. That habit is covered in measure and mark so the cut is right the first time.

Pass it on better than you got it

If you find an old brace with rust on the chuck and a gummed-up ratchet, buy it. Soak the metal in oil overnight. Work the rust off with fine abrasive. Free the ratchet, true the bits, wax the wood. An hour of work gives you a tool that should have another hundred years in it.

Then do the part that matters. Hand it to a son, a daughter or a neighbor kid who's never turned one. Show him the awl dimple and the square. Let him feel the screw tip pull the bit in on its own.

A cordless drill gets replaced. A brace gets handed down.