File Work

J

JerryS

Joined
Jan 13, 2012
Messages
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I'm interested in doing some file work on the handle of my Medieval Eating Knife and I was curious what you guys use to make the odd shapes. I've fiddled around with it in the past, but I'm interested in doing it right now. What are your tools of choice? It's not just done with regular files, is it?
 
JerryS said:
What are your tools of choice? It's not just done with regular files, is it?
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Yes, just get some triangular, flat,and round files (chainsaw files work well). If you haven't already, do a video or WIP search for filework on the spine.
 
A checkering file makes those nice even lines across the spine. The price just shot up on those, though. Close to $50 now. Was going to get one.
 
LCoop said:
Well if it's to hard to drill you about to waste some files.
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Maybe not. I converted my last Tramontina machete into a Hudson Bay knife and it took the file work fine. I also used a file to clean up my edge grind and it cut great. Old Nicholson and Delta files are a lot better than the new ones.
 
experts will come along and explain the problems here. If your having problems drilling the tang of a knife but can file on the spine I have serious questions that I"m sure everyone has. Please read the stickies. Dont' take this wrong but your post shows you haven't read in depth old posts about this.
 
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“Regular” files will work but if you want to do very nice designs you might want to try files that are a little more specialized in shape. For example, you can do a thorn and vine with a round file and a triangle file but you get better definition with a round file and something like a marking file. The difference in detail you can achieve are like night and day from using only regular files.
 
JerryS said:
Maybe not. I converted my last Tramontina machete into a Hudson Bay knife and it took the file work fine. I also used a file to clean up my edge grind and it cut great. Old Nicholson and Delta files are a lot better than the new ones.
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How you drill hole for pins on that one ?
 
LCoop said:
experts will come along and explain the problems here. If your having problems drilling the tang of a knife but can file on the spine I have serious questions that I"m sure everyone has. Please read the stickies. Dont' take this wrong but your post shows you haven't read in depth old posts about this.
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I did do a cursory scan, but didn't come across what I was looking for. I probably missed something, but since I don't do stuff like this on a regular basis, I'm not always sure what I'm looking for.
 
Any sort of jimping, serrations, or filework has to be executed almost perfectly not to look worse that just a clean blade or spine.
A good rule of thumb I heard is not to try it within your first 20 knives.
I'm doing some filework right now on a sgian dubh.
I find that there really are three axes to carefully control while filing and with much tedious effort it doesn't look too crappy.
I'm not in a rush to do more.
You pretty much need at least one and perhaps two good sets of needle files (I have a coarse and fine), and you want to do it before heat treat.
You want it pretty smooth before heat treat as it's difficult to polish some shapes with sand paper later.
It is also a good idea to etch the blade after heat treat to darken the voids (looks better than Sharpie).
 
Richard338 said:
Any sort of jimping, serrations, or filework has to be executed perfectly not to look worse that just a clean blade or spine.

A good rule of thumb I heard is not to try it within your first 20 knives.


You pretty much need at least one and perhaps two good sets of needle files (I have a coarse and fine), and you want to do it before heat treat.

You want it pretty smooth before heat treat as it's difficult to polish some shapes with sand paper later.

It is also a good idea to etch the blade after heat treat to darken the voids (looks better than Sharpie).
Click to expand...


YES

Skip this one

Practice on mild steel until it's perfect.
Perfect.

Then you want round and triangular, chainsaw riffler and other small files.
Grinding the teeth off of 1, 2,3 edges creates a safe edge file = control cutting in only one direction at at time.


You can get Diamond files on hard material, but it's harder to do, harder to polish out, and you're not ready for it.
 
Here are some pics of my process.
I picked a very simple pattern and it was still tedious.
The first shot is before some final tweaks and smoothing and then off to heat treat.
I got it back, polished the file work, ground the bevels, and then etched in ferric and stained in coffee.
It darkened the hardened 3V pretty well. Likely not too durable, but it won't get rubbed in the voids too much.
The last two are after hand sanding at 600 grit, with a few scuffs remaining.

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I appreciate everyone's input. It looks like I've got a lot more practice and research to do. I don't believe in doing anything unless you do it right, so I'll keep working at it. When I believe I'm good enough, I'll post my work for assessment. As I said, thank you all for the help!
 
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