handmade files

I made a few more files today, and remembered to take pictures of cutting the teeth.  The chisel I use is made from mild steel with a high carbon steel edge welded on.  Cut the teeth on the edge of the file first so you can hold it in a vise without ruining the teeth.

The file is placed on a lead block and held down with some rope looped over my feet.  The lead block keeps the teeth that you already have cut on the other side from getting ruined.

The only 'trick' to it is being consistent.  Holding the chisel at the same angle, hitting the hammer same way every time....you strike, then drag the chisel back to rest against the raised edge of the last tooth you made and strike again... wash, rinse, repeat...

Coating the file blank with a little oil seems to help.

Here is a link to a YouTube video that someone posted File Cutting.

You can see that I wasn't being very consistent on this file, I kept stopping to take some pictures.  Its hard to get back into the rhythm of it if you stop in the middle, best to do it all at once.

Here they are all coated with pig fat, wrapped in leather, and encased in the clay horse poo mixture! hooray. I will let them dry overnight and into the fire in the morning.