Best twist drill brands?

[rake60]

I bought this Number Set from Harbor Freight about 2 years ago for $19.99

10 of them have never been used at all.
The #60 has been replaced and the #59 is missing. I must have broken it.
Several of those bits have been shortened up from resharpening.
I have no complaints on the set.

Rick

 

[shred]

Likewise I've had that HF number set last far longer than I ever expected it to, and it's done remarkably well, except I tend to lose or the little ones.

They do tend to drill a little oversize, as do the ones in my bigger "USA" split-point set. So many drills get used so infrequently I think a newcomer could get started with a small set of decent drills and a big set of mediocre ones and do ok for quite a long time-- if they have a sharpener to fix up the bad grinds. Letter drills especially don't seem to get used much. The few times they're specified for tapping, there's often an imperial equivalent in the 50-75% thread range as well.