I recently found a bunch of files thwhat would be a good way to clean them?

It depends on what is wrong with them. If they are clogged up with shavings a file card will usually get them clean. Some folks etch them with acid but I don't like to do that. If they are very good American or English files, it would be worth it to send them out for sharpening. I have used this service in the past.

http://www.boggstool.com/

It is mainly rust on them, on some it is minor and would probably come off with use and some it is pretty severe.

 

This is what I'd recommend:

John,

Most acids will get rid of rust. Some work faster than others.

A very good acid for the purpose is oxalic acid. It is a mild acid but it does the job. It works slowly but it gets the job done. It seems to have a liking for rust and it does not chew up the underlying steel beneath the rust

I got my box (yes it is sold as a powder), years ago in Southern Ontario. I ordered it from the drugstore. I had to sign a poison control register before buying it. It seems to have been  used as a poison years ago.

A drugstore should be able to order it. It can be bought from a chemical supply company, but it will be more expensive because it will be very chemically pure. Purity we do not need for our purposes. (gone are the good old days?)

The acid is fairly mild, as acids go. Which is a good thing. We used it to get the rust stains out of some underwear that was placed on a steel surface for a week plus. The acid got rid of the rust but did not dissolve the cotton and the garments were good to go.

Lovely stuff.

SLAG. 

Thanks, JHCC I missed that one in my search.

Slag, thanks for the oxalic acid idea. I am getting ready to mix some for cleaning quartz so I will try this on the files. You can also get iy from a lot of rock and crystal dealers.

If it's mainly rust, I would use Evapo-Rust nontoxic and contains no acid but works like a charm.

http://www.evapo-rust.com/

Read the link, sounds to good to be true. I will have to try it.

Slag,

Ordinarily, I would be curious as to how rust stains got into somebody's underpants.  But once you know blacksmiths are involved, it...uh...makes more sense than we should probably admit!

Having once slept on a pile of scrap metal in my old vehicle; I wouldn't be surprised at what *other* people have done.  There is an old trick out this way of stuffing all your wrenches in your pockets as you work on something because if you put them out in the sun they will be too hot to touch when you go back to pick them up!

Rockstar.esq,

I will admit to nothing!

But someone just might have forgotten a bathing suit and some wet underwear on a metal work table at the cottage.

And motored back to town and noticed it, a week later. But that just may be conjecture, and I am not telling.  No way.

(one of my dumber moves).

Regards,

SLAG.

On 7/13/2017 at 3:39 PM, ThomasPowers said:

There is an old trick out this way of stuffing all your wrenches in your pockets as you work on something because if you put them out in the sun they will be too hot to touch when you go back to pick them up!

I grew up in rainy/cloudy Michigan where the sight of a clear sunny sky would put everyone into a borderline panic.  Whenever I heard people say "It's a dry heat", I never really understood what they meant. 

Many years later I was washing a car in Tracy California when I realized that my hands dried in the time it took me to walk from one end of my car to the other!

Now in Colorado, I know exactly what you mean about the wrenches in the sun.  I just about branded myself reaching for a wrench laying in the driveway whilst working on a car one summer. Of course, if you put too many wrenches in your pockets you risk a sun burn on the backside.

On 7/13/2017 at 1:04 PM, rockstar.esq said:

Slag,

Ordinarily, I would be curious as to how rust stains got into somebody's underpants.  But once you know blacksmiths are involved, it...uh...makes more sense than we should probably admit!

Heh, heh, heh. When a blacksmith spots he rust spots and skid marks that a magnet will stick to. 

Frosty The Lucky.

The wires on a file card face are ducked back a little toward the handle, so I was told to push a file card, not pull it. Pulling it may distort the wires. Verdad?

On 7/11/2017 at 11:50 AM, SLAG said:

John,

Most acids will get rid of rust. Some work faster than others.

A very good acid for the purpose is oxalic acid. It is a mild acid but it does the job. It works slowly but it gets the job done. It seems to have a liking for rust and it does not chew up the underlying steel beneath the rust

I got my box (yes it is sold as a powder), years ago in Southern Ontario. I ordered it from the drugstore. I had to sign a poison control register before buying it. It seems to have been  used as a poison years ago.

A drugstore should be able to order it. It can be bought from a chemical supply company, but it will be more expensive because it will be very chemically pure. Purity we do not need for our purposes. (gone are the good old days?)

The acid is fairly mild, as acids go. Which is a good thing. We used it to get the rust stains out of some underwear that was placed on a steel surface for a week plus. The acid got rid of the rust but did not dissolve the cotton and the garments were good to go.

Lovely stuff.

SLAG. 

The cleaner "Bar Keeper's Friend" has the active ingredient of Oxalic Acid. 

 

14 hours ago, Frank Turley said:

The wires on a file card face are ducked back a little toward the handle, so I was told to push a file card, not pull it. Pulling it may distort the wires. Verdad?

We used to make file cards out of solid brass stock.  It's not as fast as a brush and I don't think it works as well on very coarse files, but it works very well on fine files. 

File card, then an Overnight vinegar bath, followed by baking soda, rinse in water then blow dry with a super light spray of wd (or whatever is on bench) has done the job well for me -- takes all the rust and crud out and brings a bit of new life to old files -