Drilling into a brick wall

I've always hammered vine eyes straight into the mortar between stone or brick - have you tried that?
I wouldn't use vine eyes in the brick as they may split them

 

These are screw in ones @Stephen Southwest

 

I've never heard of this - interesting.

You might consider getting some traditional hammer in vine eyes if your drilling adventures prove to continue to be difficult ...

 

I think it would always depend on what you intend putting on the support wires. A few annual climbers don't have the weight of a mature, climbing rose.
The old style vine eyes which were a solid, tapered triangular shape with a hole for the wire, aren't normally used now. Those were hammered into the mortar/joints. The new ones are all screw in, of varying lengths and weight. I'd always try and put those into the brickwork, but I agree - you need a decent hammer drill, and most of the battery types in my experience aren't hefty enough unless you spend serious dough. You'd need the kind a professional would use, and the cost wouldn't be worthwhile for most home DIY ers.
I have a corded drill as well as a battery one, but while the battery one is fine for the majority of jobs, it isn't powerful enough to get into brickwork properly, so I need the corded one if it's for something that needs serious support.

 

Thanks @fairygirl. I find my cordless drill very useful for drilling holes in wood and screwing screws in, but luckily I do also have a corded one.

 

I've used a cheap cordless one for drilling into concrete fence posts and found the way to do it was to start with a very narrow bit and work up with a couple of bits rather than go straight in with say a 6mm bit .

 

Thanks @Dropmore that's interesting.

 

SDS drill will do anything you want.

 

...though they're a bit rubbish at making cheese toasties

 

I always start with a smaller drill bit for walls or anything with plaster [unless I'm positive the material is suitable to go straight in with the full sized one] and increase the size. It's particularly good if you need to be careful about what you're drilling into, and also because you can't easily make the hole smaller, but you can always make it a bit bigger

 

If you ever need to drill into masonry to any extent it is the only way to go.
It makes a so called hammer drill obsolete.
It's the percussion that is much heavier, and often slower rotation.

 

Many bricks are machine pressed. They are softer(less dense) away from the edges. Never drill holes within 30mm of an edge, or into the mortar unless desperate, or your fixing will pullout/work loose with windrock.

 

Make your hole as suggested above then hammer in a plastic rawl plug and use eyes with a screw fitting. Worked for me.

 

There is nothing to beat an SDS drill going into brick, stone, concrete, etc. The first time you use one, your eyes will open wide and your jaw drop at the sheer effortless speed of it.