Forward vs. drag filing action comparison - video

[Altair]

Forward vs. drag filing action comparison. 16:41 video.

[uv8452]

First class investigation. Thank you.

[Frank S]

Some interesting test results. Still won't be forcibly dragging my files though. I will however be watching for a possible brand to brand test.

[uv8452]

Frank: Yes, dragging backwards sends shivers down my spine. My main preoccupation is to get rid of the chips. A former supervisor of Rüggeberg's (>>Pferd brand) told me a) that it is less a question of brand (Pferd is still one of the best), b) but of industrial epochs ("... 60 year ago, most brands were longer lasting"). Escape: Use the (yellow angle) CORINOX files. (expensive, though). Never buy DIY store files. Look for new forgotten files in drawers. For small files: Buy swiss ones.

[Frank S]

Frank: Yes, dragging backwards sends shivers down my spine. My main preoccupation is to get rid of the chips. A former supervisor of Rüggeberg's (>>Pferd brand) told me a) that it is less a question of brand (Pferd is still one of the best), b) but of industrial epochs ("... 60 year ago, most brands were longer lasting"). Escape: Use the (yellow angle) CORINOX files. (expensive, though). Never buy DIY store files. Look for new forgotten files in drawers. For small files: Buy swiss ones.

I would still like to find some of the no longer made 28" foundry files like my dad and I used to have.

[Philip Davies]

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.

[Frank S]

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.

[Toolmaker51]

I don't and won't drag files, regardless results of automated test.
People don't push in direct reciprocation, equally consistent pressure, or parallel to the file itself. Proper filing angles just less or more than angle of the teeth, partly reason file widths and lengths vary. The only file regularly used 'square' is the lathe file, which has severely (in comparison) angled teeth and safe edges to not alter corners
I separate files for brass from those for other materials.
Like Frank S, knocked down surfaces that wouldn't seal before, not engines, but various industrial pump faces. No choice when it won't fit a machine, or on location.
The better and selected files are stored not in contact with each other, and will chamfer a corner that passes for being hand sanded 250 grit or better. That kind of work was common in tool work, molds, dies, fixtures, prototypes etc.
Long files have a better working life because the wear is distributed over greater area.

The 'system' of filing as taught by Swiss, German and Belgian (3 most prevalent) is how I started, and still use; having 95% of the files I started with.

[Frank S]

I don't and won't drag files, regardless results of automated test.
People don't push in direct reciprocation, equally consistent pressure, or parallel to the file itself. Proper filing angles just less or more than angle of the teeth, partly reason file widths and lengths vary. The only file regularly used 'square' is the lathe file, which has severely (in comparison) angled teeth and safe edges to not alter corners
I separate files for brass from those for other materials.
Like Frank S, knocked down surfaces that wouldn't seal before, not engines, but various industrial pump faces. No choice when it won't fit a machine, or on location.
The better and selected files are stored not in contact with each other, and will chamfer a corner that passes for being hand sanded 250 grit or better. That kind of work was common in tool work, molds, dies, fixtures, prototypes etc.
Long files have a better working life because the wear is distributed over greater area.

The 'system' of filing as taught by Swiss, German and Belgian (3 most prevalent) is how I started, and still use; having 95% of the files I started with.

Once , caught a guy working for me at the time, using one of my files like a bow on a fiddle, and the music he was trying to make sounded horrible to my ears. First off it was not a high end file, just one of those bastard cuts on one side and rasp on the other you find in the bargain bin. Really poor excuse of a rasp for wood and even poorer as a metal file but it had its uses at times mostly for dressing up the edges or removing quantities of excess. plastic left over from a molding process. Here he was sawing away on the edge of a piece of 10 ga metal using the rasp side trying to remove a torch bur.
Dude do us all a favor #1 learn how to use a torch, #2 find a chipping hammer or a chisel or one of my old dull files that I have ground the end to a chisel edge stop abusing our ears with your rendition of the Devil's in the house of the rising sun.

[Philip Davies]

Frank, it must have been someone else who made a knife with a leather handle, although I’ve made a drawknife from a file. To lose a knife your father made, presume it was stolen, would have been really annoying. I had a penknife swiped from where I was working, one I’d fixed. Have I forgiven the bloke I think had it? God help me, hardly!