SNIP: auger bits

How timely!

Some weeks ago I picked up a roll of Mephisto BIG 1-3” auger bits on the bay.
The roll they came in lists the size in normal sizes, then in 16th sizes, then
says “for #[n] copper”.

Question 1: What does “for #{n} copper” have to do with LARGE auger bits?
Perhaps they are sized to correspond to OD of copper pipe? I know less about
plumbing than I do old auger bits . . .

I didn’t look at the pictures closely enough to realize that they’d been
“sharpened” by some dimwit who had no idea how an auger bit works. Think Dremel
tool at 10,000 rpm, chain saw stone. Fortunately he didn’t “sharpen” the
outsides of the nipper teeth so they were savable. But they were also denuded of
their lovely brace-friendly 4-sided shanks . . . . flattened in some cases to 6
roughly equal sides. In others you can see the Jack Daniels had taken hold of
the dimwit, because they were irregular . . . some 5 sided, some “kinda sided”
but still round.

Last night I painstakingly sharpened them with my new and (free) Nicholson
detail files (gloat) and I also squared off the shanks as best I could to 4
sided with my (also free) Simonds files (gloat2). I say “best I could” because
some of them were really screwed up. Some shanks were so hosed up that getting
them to 4 sided left them no longer on center to the threaded tip.

Question 2: what do the assembled Galoots think will strip first, the alligator
jaws in my Pexto brace, or the irregular but mostly now 4 sided shafts? The bits
seem very soft to me, if the speed with which I could hand-file the shanks is
any indication, so I’d expect that to round off before it had a chance to tear
up jaws. The Pexto was a cheap pickup, but I like it a lot, and it’s the biggest
brace (8” throw) I’ve been able to find without selling a child to the circus.

Question 3: does anyone have experience with using a bit where the shank is not
centered to the tip? These are BIG bits, 1”-3”, the threads on the tips are
coarse, not fine, so I wouldn’t expect them to ever turn fast. I’m wondering
more about the entry geometry and the ability to create a round hole.

I can experiment on some light wood . . . . and can make up an old fashioned
auger handle using an old 4-sided tap and die wrench . . . . but before I go to
the trouble I thought I’d look to the Voice of Experience.

Thanks in advance,

MPf.