Nils Hand Auger

Hi everybody,

Getting ready to pull the trigger on a Nils hand auger. Best price I’ve found so far is at FishUSA, $115.95 for the 6″…

http://www.fishusa.com/Nils-USA-Hand-Augers_p.html

I also came across a convertible model that comes with the drill adapter kit…

http://www.profishingsupply.com/iceaugers/nils_usa_cordless_drill_auger.htm

Is there any difference between the augers/blades themselves that anyone knows of? Seems like paying a few extra bucks to get the adapter makes sense.

Thanks for your help!

The flighting is different. Look at the 6″ orange one, the flighting goes around about 5 times. Now look at the blue nils, the flighting goes around 7 times. More flighting tighter together means easier drilling.

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More flighting tighter together means easier drilling.

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I am really curious as to why? Isn’t the flighting there simply to remove slush from the hole and keep the auger straight/centered? Not sure how it would affect the actually drilling or cutting part…

Pulls more ice shavings out of the hole thus freeing up the cutting head to cut more ice.

Sounds like a concept I’d have to actually witness to grasp it. Doesn’t make sense to me though

Try drilling with one of the off brand mora styles with 3 flighting rings. The ice shavings/slush bind up and make it impossible to turn.

I always thought the reason the nils was so much more efficient was the diameter of the flighting. Every other brand had a near identical size flighting to the blade diameter. Thus causing friction or drag on the flighting on the side of the hole. For the 6″ nils had 4.5″ of flighting vs the lazer or mora being at 6″ or almost for a 6″ drill. Maybe I was wrong but that was more than logical to me. The more flighting twists just moved more ice faster out of the hole. Either way the only thing I was curios about was the orange cutting head. How it cut and kept shape vs the blue head. I manage about 2 winters a head on the blue 6″ before it needs a touch up. I had bought a spare head to just change out when one got dull. Then sent the backup in to be sharpened.

Blue head? the heads are red.

I was told by sharp nils (a nils head resharpening shop) that the heads on the orange and blue augers are the same, just painted a different color to match the style.

Yeah the heads are red, I was referring to the paint on the auger itself, my bad. They look different in a picture of the heads I saw. Maybe im seeing things. Either way there is no comparison between my 6″ nils and a 6″ lazer. I recently saw a 8″ nils a guy had modded up. He adapted it to a small gas utility/pole saw head. The thing was light, and it ripped through 10″ of ice without any bogging down.

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I always thought the reason the nils was so much more efficient was the diameter of the flighting.

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I think the reason they’re easier and faster has more to do with the shaving head itself as well as the offset handle and using two arms vs. one.

The Tanaka powerheads used on the Nils are the industial gas drill motors, Best auger/motor combo on the market IMO….

The reason a Nils is faster is because of the blade design and shape. The 6″ is unbelivable easy and fast. It will leave shavings in the hole. I have a hard time being coordinated enough to do the offset crank. The flighting is smaller then blade like Bronze said, 6″=4.5″, 8″=6.5″, never checked the 4″. I think they made it smaller to make the offset handle more easier to use.
The orange is new. The cutter head does look different but hard to say without seeing it first hand.