I have purchased several different brands of these step drills and most of them are very similar and like all others they wear out over time especially with excessive use. At first glance, they seem to easily gnaw through a tree. Not this one. I have to use a lot of pressure to get her through the raw diet. I don't know how well they work with metal, but personally I didn't give them much importance. I thought the different spiral cut would make the wood drilling more aggressive. That wasn't the case with me. Perhaps they are better suited for sheet metal. They weren't very expensive, so it's not a huge loss. I will push them to their limits, but after that I will only buy the brand I used before.