Files for testing blade Rc.

SkagSig40

SkagSig40

Joined
Feb 1, 2001
Messages
2,671
Ok I finally bought a file. I got a Nicholson 8 inch 200mm single cut mill smooth file.

My question for the "file" experts is, is a single cut file good for testing hardness or is a double cut better? Single cut only has riges going in one direction and a double cut has a criss cross pattern.

I bought the single smooth because it said it leaves the smoothest finish and sharpest edge. I'm not planning on sharpening with the file just testing for proper hardening.

If the double cut would be better for testing hardness I can still return the single cut file to Home depot. What do you think?:)
 
Don't think it matters what kind of file - I use the first one I can find in the hideous jumbled heap of junk on my workbench... as to a crosscut shaving off too much steel - if it cuts significantly, the blade's soft. Don't press *too* hard. If the edge is hard, the file is just shrugged off, like a car's wheels failing to grip on ice.

To get the feel of what's hard and what's soft, take a gentle cut on a piece of mild steel, and then try your file on something you know is hard, such as another file. Simple as that.

Your Nicholson, BTW, is like the Rolls Royce of files; way too good, IMHO, to wreck by dragging its precision-cut teeth over hard steel. Buy a cheap imported file for hardness testing, and keep the Nicholson for fine work.
 
Originally posted by SkagSig40
Ok I finally bought a file. I got a Nicholson 8 inch 200mm single cut mill smooth file.

My question for the "file" experts is, is a single cut file good for testing hardness or is a double cut better? Single cut only has riges going in one direction and a double cut has a criss cross pattern.
Click to expand...

Chris I always recommend the Nicholson Files for testing because they are the best. I doubt that one in 10,000 Nicholson Files would be a bad one.
And an 8 inch Nicholson is cheap here in the states, maybe not in the UK though.
The cheap files can sometimes be soft in my experience.
You made an excellent choice and Tom is spot on about the way the cut or don't cut when testing hardness.
I have the same model Nicholson you do and it's lasted me for a long time and is still pretty much like new.
Testing hardness is about all I do with it although I may use it doing a little fairly precision work once in a great while.
On the rare occasion I might do that I keep the file scrupulously clean with a clean file card.

If you didn't get a handle for it or it wasn't one with the built in handle be sure you pick up a handle that fits it properly.
A file can be one of the most dangerous tools around if it doesn't have a handle.
I ran the tang of an 8" file through the palm of my hand and into the carpal bones of my wrist using it on an engine lathe. It was several years before all the pain went away and I firmly believe that's what led to greater pain later on, eventually causing me to have the carpal bones removed from that wrist.
I had been hollering about file handles for all the files in the shop for a good 3 months that always fell on deaf ears. It was kinda funny that by the time I got back from the medical facility every damned file in the shop had a brand new handle!!!!
 
Thank you once again guys!:) Yvsa, I'll be sure to get a handle for it and I did get a file cleaner for it(file card) a metal brissel brush. Now off to test some blades!:)
 
It's not as accurate as the $10,000 Rc testing machine but it can tell a pretty good story.
 
Yvsa said -

"...an 8 inch Nicholson is cheap here in the states..."

Here, they cost 3 or 4 times more than the cheap case-hardened imports, and you can only get them at specialist engineers' supply stores, or mail order.

Nicholsons are my favorite, tho' the Swiss-made Vallorbe brand are OK. Sadly, British-made files, which used to be the best in the world, are now in the use-once-throw-away category.
 
Sounds like the files BirGorkha gets from India. I'm sure there's a box of them in the corner waiting to be recycled into kobras.
 
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