Drill bit shank shaft and shank, is usually of the same diameter. It is held usually in a three-jaw drill chuck. Bits of diameter too small to grip firmly can have straight shanks of larger diameter than the drill, which can be held firmly in a standard size collet or chuck. Large drill bits can have straight shanks narrower than the drill diameter so that they can be fitted in chucks not able to chuck the full diameter. Such a drill bit is called a reduced-shank or blacksmith's drill. For example, this allows a bit to be used in a pistol-grip drill's chuck.
Drill bit and spur drill bits are also effective in soft plastic. Conventional twist drill bits in a hand drill, where the hole axis is not maintained throughout the operation, have a tendency to smear the edges of the hole through side friction as the drill bit vibrates. In metal, the lip and spur drill bit is confined to drilling only the thinnest and softest sheet metals in a drill press. The bits have an extremely fast cutting tool geometry: no point angle and a large (considering the flat cutting edge) lip angle causes the edges to take a very aggressive cut