[mistercrash]

It is true that carbide bits are very brittle, I drill at the lowest speed my drill press can go and I go slow, especially when the bit is just about to go through to the other side, that's when I am extra careful because that is the point where I lost a couple bits because they snapped like glass. I just go very slowly, not much pressure is needed because the bit just cuts through the metal like butter. I also have a set of numbered bits that I used successfully to drill in the hardened steel of the spurs. I have no idea what they are made of, I got them from an old neighbor, her husband had died of cancer and he was into model trains, she let me in his shop and let me pick whatever I wanted at a yard sale price. Only the tools, she wanted to keep the trains.
I don't know what the heck is wrong with the machine shops in your neck of the woods, looks like they're a bunch of woosses.