[TheForge] Effective filing

[Steve Smith]

When you do have to use one, a file card is only useful on a coarse 
enough file. If you have a fine file, it won't do a thing except dull 
the file.

Instead, take a piece of brass or copper tubing and flatten the end. Use 
this as a tool to shove through the teeth. You want to push the copper 
along the file in the easiest possible direction, quite a different 
angle from when you are filing. You aren't trying to file the copper!

The idea is that the copper is soft enough that it quickly shape itself 
to the trough you are running it along, and cleans all the junk out. It 
is really amazing how much better the file works afterward.

Steve

Dan Tull wrote:
> Andy,
> Having taken Peter Ross's filing class..........
> I asked him what they used for a "file card"( the brush used to keep 
> teeth clean)
> that we were instructed to use since high school shop class.
> The reply was "We don't use one.""Don't overload the file , and it won't 
> clog."
> Let the tool work.
> 
> 
> ----- Original Message ----- From: "Andrew Vida" <osan at netlabs.net>
> To: <knife-list at kepler-eng.com>; "Sponsored by ABANA" 
> <theforge at mailman.qth.net>; <blacksmiths at yahoogroups.com>; "ArtMetal 
> Sandbox" <sandbox at artmetal.com>
> Sent: Friday, February 04, 2005 10:40 AM
> Subject: [TheForge] Effective filing WAS: Re: [kl] Re: Sen
> 
> 
>> I've copied theforge, the blacksmiths, and artmetal lists as this is 
>> relevant to each.
>>
>> Cameron Potter wrote:
>> This usually occurs because you are pushing the tool beyond its 
>> cutting capacity.  If your file is in good condition, is of good 
>> quality, is
>> When you press beyond the file's capacity, the gullets load up and 
>> metal chips may even crown the cutting edges in places, lifting the 
>> file off the work in spots.  Edges that make no contact with the work 
>> cannot do any cutting. I suspect that there might be some microscopic 
>> welding going on between chips and cutting edges, which may explain 
>> why at times chips can be so difficult to clean from the file.
>>
> 
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