There is a "crossover" point between engineering and carpentry. Joiners taught me how to sharpen chisels and plane irons (why are they called irons when they are made of high carbon steel?) and I taught them to sharpen a drill. For some reason, joiners and carps don't learn how to sharpen drills or flat bits on a bench grinder. You really don't want to throw away a HSS 13mm drill if its blunt; it costs £10.00. The first answers right. I "threw" it open to everyone by the way. Don't want to leave anyone out.
You'll be lucky to find many carpenters aged 30 and under these days that have been doing it for years but own a bench top grinder/sharpener, most don't bother and just keep renewing chisels, hand planes have given way to cordless power planers, etc. I only bought a sharpening stone on a grinding wheel a couple of years ago myself off one of the guys recommendations on this very forum, for £200 it's not a priority for young carpenters to purchase, other tools are far more essential and pressing to spend the money on.
Now, your quiz, bearing in mind I know nothing about engineering whatsoever as I'm a carpenter, and I'm a hell of a lot younger than you so I'm on the back foot before I start, I will at least have a crack and have the courage of my convictions.
1. No idea. Don't blue the steel, ensure sharpening is even all around the bit, check bevels are uniform?
2. Ditto. 75 degrees?
3. Ditto. Flute?
4. There's a theme here.... Maybe to aid waste removal as the bit turns?
5. And again. Rake is the angle the teeth/blade is manufactured to depending on the purpose of the design.
6. Negative rake is where the angle of the teeth on the blade are set slightly back from 90degrees, for arguments sake 85 degrees, likewise positive rake is where the angle is set further than 90, ie 95 degrees.
7. Countersinking is using a countersink bit to bore a tapered hole into the workpiece, counter boring is boring a uniformly sized hole into the piece.
8. Back to "Christ knows." Apart from the obvious higher carbon content in one steel than the other, I'd assume tool steel is used for more widespread manufacture and costs less, and probably more workable.
9. Tungsten Carbide Tipped.
10. Clearance hole goes all the way through the workpiece and also allows the fixing to pass through unobstructed, pilot hole is used as a guide and is a couple of sizes smaller than the fixing required.
11. A bevel is a slope, a chamfer a sharp crisp angle, easiest way to describe it. So where does a splay fit in then? Or "arrissed?"
12. Hmm, a moot point. This is an example of regional dialect differences again. A chop saw and mitre saw really speaking are different things, but you do pull the saw over the workpiece, such as a radial arm saw which has been around a lot longer than a mitre saw.
With all respect, some of these questions prove my point about the lack of relevance of knowing certain names or reasons why things are called the words they are. Most people learn on the job these days, case in point, absolutely nothing of what I was taught in college contributed to me answering any of your questions, just as well really as most of them are probably wrong.
