Lost Trade, the Filesmith

[Ice Czar]

Materializing Sheffield - A Filecutter's Hammer from the Hawley Collection

while there are a few hand-struck files still being made, there certainly arent many. Im interested in this because I covet far more files and rasps for wood, stone and metal than I could ever afford

This particular hammer represents, for me, so much of Sheffield's industrial history - the core trade of filemaking, the work practices of specialist craftsmen, the effects of the introduction of machinery, the persistence of obsolete skills and finally it stands for the death of a traditional trade. It is an ordinary object, but rare and priceless, being a conduit for oral traditions and for exemplifying change and continuity. Plus, it represents my personal interest in the generations of craftsmen who make up my family tree.

A page from the 1892 Sheffield Illustrated List showing the range of cuts produced on files and rasps (copyright expired)

[matt87]

File cutting is amazing. Making a couple of my own is on my list of 'things I want to do one day even though it's probably not worth it, because I'm just a little bit crazy'.

[John B]

In the early seventies I had the dubious pleasure of being involved in refurbishing a 19th century file cutting machine that was still in use by a Sheffield file and tool manufacturer.

This was at the time of being made state of the art technology boosting output and consistency of the factory made files, pitch and depths could be adjusted to make the different file grades of cut.

While recasting all the white metal bearings and rescraping in slideways etc it was fitted with a new fangled electric motor to replace the flat belt driven shafting run from a waterwheel powered line shaft serving a number of these and other machines.

The reason this machine was being refurbished was that it outperformed all the modern machinery that had been made to supercede it.

I would like to think its probably still in a working condition somewhere (and not been scrapped due to imports of cheapo foriegn files)

[habu68]

figure 28 is a copy of LEONARDO DA VINCI's file cuting machine.

[Ice Czar]

File-Maker

Modern but traditional Japanese filemaking, click illustrations for .WMV video files, google translation
thanx to Wunderlich for pointing this out to me

[imagedude]

Interesting point about quenching the files:- Following the cutting of the teeth on all the sides of the file, the file is then hardened by heating it and quenching it in salt water. The correct salinity was tested by floating an egg in the water!

[Ice Czar]

Im trying to get a translation of the Japanese videos as that hardening quench seems interesting too. Specifically what are the files being coated with before the final reheat and quench.

[ThomasPowers]

IIRC floating an egg in the brine was what was suggested in "Practical Blacksmithing", Richardson written about 120 years ago in the west.

I don't know about japanese files but european/american ones were sometimes coated with a salt/wheat paste to retard decarburization during heat treat.