This pipe drill was recovered during a 1991 survey at the Tobias site in Rice County. Pipe drills, like all drills, were used to bore holes in softer materials than the drill material itself, such as soft stone. The Tobias site is a Great Bend aspect (ancestral Wichita) village that had dense artifact deposits, house remains, and numerous deep trash-filled storage pits. The site is listed in the National Register of Historic Places.