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.

The Almanus Manuscrpit

Why why why didn't I know about this book??  I just added it to the medieval clocks page, thank you Robert MacPherson for pointing it out to me!

Wait for it....!!!!

Verge and Foliot Clock

The striking mechanism is done, the bell rings twice an hour now.  Just need some finials and a few finishing touches and then to decide what to do next! 

A cautionary tale....

Never, NEVER leave chasers pitch in your car!!!!  Its easy to forget how hot your car can get when the sun shines on it all...day....long.  I should have taken a picture, most of the pitch had run out of the bell and into a tool box enveloping a couple of my gravers, a hammer, file, etc. just like encasing bugs in amber.  I felt like an archaeologist chipping my tools out of it.   What a mess! at least it didn't make it out onto the car seat itself!

clock bell chasing/engraving

Started engraving on the bell today, the pitch worked well so I could hold it and rotate in a vise. The text is part of a line from the Roman poet Virgil "Sed fugit interea fugit irreparabile tempus" which basically means 'meanwhile it flees: time flees irretrievably'  

Verge and Foliot Clock bell

The frame for the bell is built, the bell is just kind of hanging there.

I want to try to engrave/chase something on the bell, so I filled it with pitch.  It is a weird shape to deal with, as I want to work on the edge.  So another experiment to see if I can hold onto it....