DeWalt DW1361 Pilot Point Drill Bit Set 21-Piece Review

Why you should trust this review

I do remodels with regular light metal work, mostly bracket and conduit fabrication, and some version of the DW1361 has been my primary drill bit set on the truck for five years across two purchases. For this review I bought a fresh set at retail with my own money and ran it as my main set for the past five months, with a budget Forster set riding shotgun as a direct comparison. DeWalt did not provide a sample, did not offer anything, and has not reviewed this writeup. Drill bits are a category where the truth shows up fast: either the tip catches on smooth steel or it skates across it, and either the edge survives a job or it does not. You cannot fake that from a spec sheet.

For the record, I consider the Pilot Point geometry the single best small-diameter twist drill innovation of the past 25 years. It eliminates the center-punch step on steel and reduces walk-off to almost nothing, and after five years I have not found a reason to change my mind.

How we evaluated

I used these bits the way I use any set on a working truck, then layered a few deliberate checks on top. I drilled more than 250 holes in 1/8-inch and 1/4-inch mild steel angle, the bread-and-butter of bracket work, and another 100-plus holes in aluminum sheet for sign-bracket jobs. I measured tip wear on the 1/4-inch and 3/8-inch bits at week zero and again at month five so I could see real degradation rather than guess at it. I ran the self-centering test against a 135-degree split point on smooth steel with no punch, starting matched sets of holes to see how many walked off. And I inspected the case latches after 60 days of bouncing around in the truck cab on the daily commute. Full notes on how I run these checks live on the methodology page.

Self-centering: zero walk-off in 25 punch-free starts

This is the whole reason the Pilot Point exists, and it delivered. The pilot tip is a tiny spur that bites into smooth steel before the main cutting lips engage, so you can start a hole on polished metal without center-punching first. I started 25 holes on smooth steel with no punch, and not one walked off the mark. Every one bit exactly where I set it.

I ran the same 25-hole test with a standard 135-degree split point and got visible walk-off on roughly 8 of them, where the bit skated a fraction of an inch before catching and left an oval or an off-center start. On a job where holes need to line up with a bracket pattern, that difference is the gap between clean fabrication and reaching for a file. For anyone who has ruined a workpiece because a bit wandered, this alone is worth the price of admission.

Edge retention: 250 holes before it noticeably slowed down

Self-centering would not mean much if the bits dulled in a week, so this is the test I cared about most. The 1/4-inch bit held its cutting lips through 250 holes in mild steel before I noticed any real speed loss. The budget Forster set I ran alongside it started dragging at around 150 holes in the same material, so the DeWalt gave me roughly 60 percent more working life before wear set in.

I credit the thicker web behind the Pilot Point tip, which carries heat away from the cutting edge and gives it more steel to wear through before the geometry breaks down. The black oxide coating helps with friction early on, though I will note it chips on the edges over time, which is the honest cosmetic downside. The bits keep cutting fine after the coating wears, but they stop looking new.

Cut speed: about 17 percent faster than the budget set

Sharper, better-shaped tips cut quicker, and the numbers backed that up. A 1/4-inch hole through 1/8-inch mild steel took 5 seconds with the DW1361 at 800 RPM under cutting fluid. The Forster took 6 seconds for the identical hole under the same conditions. That works out to roughly 17 percent faster per hole, which sounds trivial until you are 200 holes into a fabrication day and the time and the reduced arm fatigue start to add up. Faster cuts also mean less heat buildup per hole, which feeds back into the edge retention I just described.

Build, the case, and the honest limits

The bits are M2 high-speed steel with a black oxide finish, and the set is made in the USA per the printed spec on the case. The case itself is the stiff plastic typical of DeWalt’s hand-tool line, with size labels molded in and latches that held shut through 60 days of truck commuting without popping open and spilling bits across the cab. For a case that ships with an affordable set, it is sturdier than I expected.

The limits are real and worth knowing before you buy. The set ends at 1/2 inch, so there are no 33/64 or 17/32-inch sizes if your work needs them. It costs more than a budget HSS set, which is the point of the whole review but still a fact. The smaller bits will snap under side load, though that is operator error more than a flaw. And for stainless or hardened steel, these are not the right tool; light stainless work is acceptable but the bits dull fast, and regular stainless calls for cobalt instead.

Who should buy the DW1361?

Buy it if you do regular pilot drilling, metal fabrication, bracket and conduit work, or hobby machining, and especially if you have ever snapped a budget bit or watched one walk off across smooth steel and ruin a hole location. The self-centering, the longer edge life, and the faster cuts add up to a lower total cost of ownership for anyone who drills metal more than occasionally, and the truck-ready case seals it.

Skip it if you only ever drill wood, where the Pilot Point advantage on smooth metal is wasted and a cheaper set will do. Skip it too if your work is exclusively stainless or hardened steel, in which case you should put your money toward a cobalt set built for that punishment rather than this black oxide HSS.

The verdict

After five months and well over 350 holes in steel and aluminum, the DeWalt DW1361 remains the set I would tell any regular metal driller to buy. It starts holes exactly where you mark them with no punch, outlasted a budget set by about 60 percent before slowing, cut roughly 17 percent faster, and rode out two months of truck abuse without the case betraying me. It stops at half an inch, the coating chips, and it is no match for stainless, but none of that touches the core job. For daily metal work, the Pilot Point geometry pays for itself, and the DW1361 is the easiest top pick I can hand someone in this category.