Nose augers are an old-style boring tool that are no longer available. They are notable for the fact that you can bore long straight holes (ie little or no deviation associated with a bit following the grain [following the path of least resistance through the lower density earlywood and away from the more dense latewood]).

I need to bore accurately sized holes 0.75" and 1.00" in diameter to depths of 18 to 20+ inches in the end grain of relatively narrow turning billets.

Rather than attempting to have a blacksmith attempt to forge such tooling from tool steel, I am considering tipping (with HSS) a piece of machined steel.

I would appreciate recommendations concerning necessary rake, sharpness and clearance angles given I will be boring woods with a density range of 0.35 to 0.70. Any other comments on tool design suggestions would be greatly appreciated. For example how much slope is recommended between the center and outer cutting edges; and most importantly, will this tool design concept actually work. I've never seen such a tool and have been depending on pictures and text from Mercer's book entitled "Ancient Carpenter Tools".

Thanks . . .