Proper Use and Care of Your Filing Tools

What are filing tools? What is the proper use and how should you care for your files. First let me tell you exactly what files are and the types of specialized files and then you will learn how to use your files and the best ways to care for your them.

Files are steel tools with rough, ridged surfaces that are used for smoothing or grinding down or cutting through something. They come in a wide assortment of sizes, shapes and tooth configurations. The cross-section of a file can be flat, round, half-round, triangular, square, knife-edge or a more specialized shape. The teeth can range from rough, coarse and intermediate to second-cut to smooth. For the most part files have teeth on all faces, but some have specialty flat files with teeth only on the face or only on the edge.

There are four specialized file types which include:

1. Diamond files that are used effectively against extremely hard materials.
2. Needle files are usually sold in sets of 6 or 12 and come in different shapes. These files are suited for smaller work pieces.
3. Riffler files are small to medium size files in an assortment of cross sectional shapes and profiles. These files are used
in hard to reach or unusually shaped areas.
4. Machine files are designed for use in a filing machine. The filing machine is similar in a appearance to a scroll saw or
band saw because it is mounted vertically in the middle of a table.

Filing is an art in which mastery depends mainly on practice, practice and more practice. It is astonishing what a real expert can do with a file. There is one simple rule that should not be overlooked, that rule is that a hand file should be used only as a one-way tool. The teeth are shaped to cut on the forward stroke only, and so filing on the return will ruin the tool. You should use a machine file and never a hand file in a filing machine because the pressure is applied both ways.

When filing shafting or with other round work in a lathe be sure to keep oil on the work to prevent clogging and to avoid making ridges and score marks on the work. As with any type of filing enough pressure should be kept on the work, otherwise the surface will become glazed and the file points dull.

The more commonly used files are thickest in the middle to allow for the rocking that invariably occurs while working. For this reason fewer teeth are in contact with the work than would be the case if they file were perfectly flat, plus the bite of the teeth is also greater.

You should never use a file as a hammer or just toss it in the tool chest along with all the other tools. Why, because if you do this it will soon make it worthless for fine work. Large files should never be fitted to their handles by boring a hole in the wood and forcing in the tine. The pressure will split the handle sooner or later. Instead bore a hole the size of the small end and then burn out the rest with the tine heated to a low red. Keep wet waste around the body of the file so as not to draw the temper.

Always take care of your tools and properly store them because doing so will prolong the life the tools and save you lots of money.