Look at the brazing and the grinding rather than the packaging. Rough or uneven braze fillets, a shank that is not ground smooth, a gritty bearing, and printing slightly wrong in font or spacing are the tells. A price well below market is the first one.
Counterfeits copy the branding accurately and the manufacturing badly, because the manufacturing is where the cost is.
What to inspect
The braze line where carbide meets steel. On a genuine bit it is neat, even, and the same on every flute. Counterfeits show blobs, gaps, and a visible step.
The shank. It should be ground to a smooth, consistent diameter with no tool marks. A rough shank does not seat properly in a collet, which is a slip and a real hazard at router speeds.
The cutting edge under a loupe or a phone camera. Fine, even grinding on a genuine bit; visible chatter or a wavy edge on a fake.
The bearing, if fitted. It should spin freely, silently, and stop smoothly.
The paperwork tells
Fonts and kerning slightly off. Laser marking that looks printed. A country of origin that does not match the brand. Packaging with a barcode that does not scan to the product.
Where they come from
Marketplace listings from unfamiliar sellers, and any price far below the brand’s normal level. Buy router bits from a tool merchant or the manufacturer, not from a marketplace.
Why it matters more than on other tools
A blade fails by cutting badly. A router bit spinning at high speed with a bad braze fails by throwing carbide.
Last reviewed 2026-08-12