There are two principal parts to a Spade Drill, namely the blade and the holder. The holder has a slot into which the blade first, a wide slot at the back of the blade engages with a tongue in the holder slot to accurately locate the blade. A retaining screw holds the two parts together.

The blade is usually High Speed Steel Blade or cemented Carbide Tipped blades.

Standard stub, short, long and extra long holders are available, for every deep holes, special holders having wear strips to support and guide the drill are often used. Spade drills can be given with holders having coolant holes to direct cutting fluid, under pressure, to the cutting edge.

Metal separation from the work is achieved in similar manner by both twist drills and spade drills. The two cutting lips separate the metal by a shearing action that is identical to that of chip formation by a single point cutting tool.

A most important feature of the cutting edge is the chip splitter, or chip breaker grooves. Instead of forming a single wide chip these grooves cause several chips to be readily disposed.