ThomasPowers Posted June 16, 2013 Share Posted June 16, 2013 Any lead alloy will still be too hot a melting point for the use end of the files which are generally dead hard (and so quite brittle) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bo T Posted June 16, 2013 Author Share Posted June 16, 2013 Any lead alloy will still be too hot a melting point for the use end of the files which are generally dead hard (and so quite brittle) The tin/lead eutectic point is well below 400 F. What temperature do you believe a file should be tempered at? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John B Posted June 16, 2013 Share Posted June 16, 2013 As Thomas said, files were usually dead hard, having said that, molten lead was used to temper the tang end of the file, Lead melting point is around 612 degrees Fahrenheit(320C)which is the softer end of the tempering range. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John B Posted June 16, 2013 Share Posted June 16, 2013 The file blade was left hard, it was the tang or flat handle and extreme top of the blade that was tempered.Sometimes when fitting wooden handles the tangs would be heated to high red and the handle then pushed on, this also had the effect of normalising the tang rather than it just being tempered. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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