Repurposing a file mistake

Making Safe

Mark Mandell - Gone Round In New Jersey

I've always used a bit of 320 and a hard block. What's the advantage with a steel file?

Fine teeth...

David Weaver

..saw files and other files designed for steel have fine teeth, and if they leave any marking behind, it's very slight and easy to remove.

You have excellent control over geometry so you can break edges or finish profiles just up to a crisp line without having uneven work that is just rounded over.

I have always used (unless I'm just making something on the quick) triangular saw files as my last step in smoothing something or doing the kind of work you're talking about.

I've ground or belt sanded edges or sides when one needs to be safe. It's nice to have large swiss files for certain tool making, but in most cases, the result isn't any better than a repurposed saw file.

Old metalworking double cut round files that are nearly dull are also excellent to have around, especially if you can get some really big ones. What's dull for metal often still works really well for wood.

I Get The Metalwork

Mark Mandell - Gone Round In New Jersey

Done enough metal (including silver) to agree on using files. But just don't see the advantage of fine metal teeth, that will clog with wood fibers with a pass or two, over backed up fine abrasives to ease an edge but keep it crisp.

on dry wood...

David Weaver

I haven't really had much of an issue with a file loading. some gets between the teeth, but we're not talking about rasping, and the filings can just be brushed off - they don't pin like metal.

The objective in this case is really small edge easing or removing tooth marks from a more coarse previous file.

Abrasives are obnoxious because their cut rate changes, and the work ends up looking like it was done by abrasives unless you're really careful and slow.

After I posted this, I thought about mentioning using a file like this or a dowel and wrapping abrasive around it. on curved work, I end up using a file like this because leaving a crisp line on a plane handle or saw handle (where a curve meets a flat area) can be troublesome with a card scraper unless the cut is very light, so I'd typically use a small file like this to remove larger file marks and then do a very light scraping of said subject handle to remove the file marks left by this.

I recall seeing a reference years ago that some of the early saws and tool handles had marks on them from finishing with fine files.

What David said plus...

Bill Tindall, E.Tn.

.....my files are within arms reach and the sand paper is not so handy. I do not experience clogging. I can't hold a crisp (aris?) edge with sand paper, for example on the bull nose shown in the picture. I find the result more predictable with a file.

Re: What David said plus...

William Duffield

Totally agree with Bill and David. Also, I hate the little bits of folded abrasive discarded onto the floor, that likes to get stuck in the shop vac nozzle and hose. I also dislike the work of cutting various grits of abrasive up into pieces (9 per sheet) and then remarking them and keeping them stacked in order. (It is much more efficient to make a unique handle for each file.) Files are much more efficient, last longer, and if you have fine enough ones you can go directly from the file to the finish. For cleaning them, if a tap on the bench doesn't knock out enough dust, I scratch it out with a very large finger nail, which doesn't dull them like a file card would.

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