Quote Originally Posted by Philip Davies View Post
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This is an illustration from Alexander Weyger’s book “The recycling,use and repair of tools”, in which he describes how to make a crude file and, on the following page, a file-making rig. I have never tried it, but I have come across a lot of files, and the longer they are, the better.
Of course, all files you buy today are machine made but less than a century ago many files were still made by hand. There are still a few artisans who make custom files and probably some as we inappropriately call the 3rd world. When my dad was medically retired from the Marines the year before I was born, I'm told he brought 4 things back from Korea his M1, 2 28" files and a 14" long knife he had made from a large file. He and I still used them to shave the engine blocks and heads until I was well into my teens then one day he decided they were just too dull to use any more, so he heated them up to anneal them ground off all of the teeth then forged knives out of them. I kept one of the knives for nearly 30 years, but it disappeared mysteriously. It had the most beautiful handle made out of several shades of leather, with a brass guard and pommel with aluminum and brass separators between the leather disks.
If I remember correctly, you recently made a knife with a leather handle.