Types of Drill Bit

That sounds like nonsense to me.
_{(unless I've missinterpreted your post, in which case ignore the following...)}

To drill a hole in wood, I don't use a wooden drill bit.
Stainless steel is a right pig to drill and needs the right speed, pressure and possibly a special cutting angle on the bit, but I'll bet a tin of my finest Tuna that it doesn't need a bit made of stainless steel.

Del

High speed steel with titanium-nitride coating.

Don't try sharpening them, throw them away, you'll just remove the coating and ruin them.

Just throwing this in; from Irwin.

"Cobalt bits are not coated, they are cobalt steel through and through. At the end of manufacture a cobalt bit is baked in an oven to turn the surface color of the steel a dull gold color. This is done primarily for easy identification by color. If the gold wears off or is ground off in sharpening on a cobalt bit, it is still solid cobalt steel. Our cobalt drill bits are made of M35 cobalt steel which has 5 percent cobalt content. The Rockwell is approximately 65.5 to 67 Rockwell C.

Irwin titanium drill bits have a hardness of approximately 64.5 to 65.5 Rockwell C. The titanium coating is much harder at approximately 82 Rockwell C. If you sharpen a cobalt bit it is still as good as a new bit, assuming it was sharpened correctly. If you sharpen a titanium bit its performance will drop because the coating is gone on the tip; however, you still have the benefit of the titanium coating in the flute of the bit and on the sides of the bit. It will still perform better than a standard bit."

Might save you a buck or two - if you have the technique/skill or the proper gear to sharpen.

i did bought cobalt drillbit. it was HSS with cobalt coating.

i did bought also. but u must boughted cobalt with HSS coating maybe? not opposite way 'round china version. Seriously, the cobalt bit with correct cutting angle, coolant(depending on thickness), 'application' pressure & rpm for the hole size will usually do the trick. Check in the Black book, the info should all be there.

This requirement is probably due to the fact that if you use a "plain" steel drill to drill the cres, (corrosion resistant steel) part you will have a potential for rust. (Iron contamination)

Passivation after drilling would seem to me to solve that problem nicely.

Do you want to make a hole in SS material or you want the drill SS316 for some soft material ?

SS316 is low carbon and may have max hardness of the order of 20HRC only and is not hardenable. Hence it is next to useless as a raw material for cutting tool.

Try for one of the various HSS materials.

UD15

Try a Cobalt drill bit.....wonderful stuff for drilling through most metals!

Or his supervisors sense of humor

So what do you use to drill a hole in Stainless steel? Is there a definitive answer?

Stainless Steel 316 (or others) are not hard to drill as such. the problem is 'Work Hardening' which means that the SS area becomes hard while you are drilling the first layers. Therefore, you will be able to start a hole but the drill will become blunt very quickly while the bottom of the hole becomes harder than the surrounding metal surface.

To prevent 'Work Hardening' you need to keep cutting at a regular rate: removing metal without allowing the drill bit to kind of rub. It must keep moving at every revolution, removing metal. That is why the pressure, cutting speed and the cutting angle must be properly checked WHILE using the best HSS drills and not the substandard drill bit you find cheaply produced...

The issue in drilling, threading, and tapping SS is appropriate cutting fluids to prevent galling. The old Rapid Tap, including trichloroethane worked well. I'm told that brake fluid (ethylene glycol) works as well.

I would just use M2 HSS bits, drill with the recommended feeds from the manufacturer, and scrap as they dull. SS, if it was available would not be anyway near as practical.

Cobalt, while better, would probably not be worth your concern, time or money.

As others have posted feed and speed usually get reversed, due to human nature.

Since I am in Birmingham, AL, a good old Southern Fried Chicken dinner with the 3 sides awaits anyone who can show the need for SS bits.

You know, the old meat and three the South US is famous for.

All the above answers are in the ball park. The only thing that I can add is, if you wish to spend the big bucks, try carbide bits.

You have received a lot of good answers. I'm wondering if you have misunderstood the requirement because it was poorly worded. Could it be that that when you were told to "use a 316 stainless steel drill bit" you customer meant for you to use a bit that would drill 316 stainless steel, and not necessarily a bit made from that material?

If you are able to begin drilling, but the cutting action stops partway through the hole, it probably means you are work hardening the stainless steel which is in turn dulling the drill. Resharpen the drill or use a new one and try again at a lower speed with coolant, and increase the feed to obtain a continuous cut. If this doesn't help, obtain a tungsten carbide drill.

Some stainless steels harden as the drill bit "polishes" the surface if it hits some carbon (carbide) in the steel. Our service engineers swear by cobalt drills and I have been to a site with a service engineer who drilled through 1/4" hastelloy plate with these. (There was a lot of swearing going on throughout the drilling). If it is sheet or plate such as stainless steel junction boxes you might try rotabroaching or punching again our service engineers have found these methods to work well. Anything that shears or cuts rather than spinning on a point where it might hit a carbide component of the stainless. I have used a jigsaw on stainless sheet at home and it went like a knife through butter but drilling the same material took a great deal of time.

Because of work hardeneing, make sure the bit is moving when it first makes contact with the workpiece;don't start with the bit stationary on work,or it will dull it quickly.

This is not so in the case of drilling.

In fact quite wrong if using a hand power drill that is 'too fast' free running. "Feed" or pressure, is most important to 'stall down' the drill. High force and short bursts, to keep a 'fast drill' slow, is the better approach.