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I have an 8" Nicholson safe edge file that I use on stems that is not cutting at all the way it used to. It's seen a good 5 yrs of use now. Is there an economical way to rejuvenate the cutting ability or, at $12, should I just buy a new one?

mightysmurf8201 wrote:I have an 8" Nicholson safe edge file that I use on stems that is not cutting at all the way it used to. It's seen a good 5 yrs of use now. Is there an economical way to rejuvenate the cutting ability or, at $12, should I just buy a new one?

Upgrade to a Grobet; you won't be disappointed. This is where I bought mine, and unless I'm mistaken, I got the '00'. They are not cheap, but they cut far better. You may be able to find them elsewhere as well, but I haven't looked in a couple years.

Thanks Ernie! That particular one doesn't have a safety edge, but after perusing that site, I found the following which is perfect, AND at an awesome price. I do have a few grobet needle files, and they are amazing. Thanks again.

http://www.artcotools.com/american-patt ... -hand.html

Btw, I read somewhere that people use old worn out files for knife blades. Is there any truth to this?

mightysmurf8201 wrote:Btw, I read somewhere that people use old worn out files for knife blades. Is there any truth to this?

I've made knives from old tool steel. You can shape the profile with an angle grinder and sharpen it. That works fairly well. If you want better results, you would want to heat treat it, which can be done with a minimalist forge setup (I used a charcoal grill with a vacuum blowing air at it to heat it up). You can also forge the metal into shape with a hammer and anvil once you get it cherry-red. Generally, you'd want to quench tool steel in oil and then temper the blade in an oven for several hours. I had a lot of fun last year messing around with making knives. I'm sure it's much more complicated if you want to get professional results, but I managed to make a few knives that turned out decent enough for things like hunting and kitchen use.

As far as I know, Nicholson files are made from O1 tool steel, but I'm not sure how recently or if they changed the composition. The type of steel matters for heat treating and tempering temperatures.

mightysmurf8201 wrote:Thanks Ernie! That particular one doesn't have a safety edge, but after perusing that site, I found the following which is perfect, AND at an awesome price. I do have a few grobet needle files, and they are amazing. Thanks again.

http://www.artcotools.com/american-patt ... -hand.html

I just grind an edge flat on my grinder, fyi, but if you're happy with those, that's great!

Never considered grinding the edge myself. Thanks for the advice.


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Grind your safe edge, re-shape etc as required. Not worth trying to re-sharpen files, it can be done with acids etc but for the cost and the much longer time they last for guys like us (we probably get 10x the life a metalworker would) it's best to just buy new ones.

caskwith wrote:Grind your safe edge, re-shape etc as required. Not worth trying to re-sharpen files, it can be done with acids etc but for the cost and the much longer time they last for guys like us (we probably get 10x the life a metalworker would) it's best to just buy new ones.

Yup.

But.... there's a little trick I came up with by accident that might be useful- just run over the file with your sandblaster. That will expose bare steel from underneath the dirty, oxidized layer and while the teeth will not be as sharp as new, you will likely get some more life out of an otherwise useless file.

http://www.boggstool.com/

They will re-sharpen your files for about $2.00+ each

W.Pastuch wrote:

caskwith wrote:Grind your safe edge, re-shape etc as required. Not worth trying to re-sharpen files, it can be done with acids etc but for the cost and the much longer time they last for guys like us (we probably get 10x the life a metalworker would) it's best to just buy new ones.

Yup.

But.... there's a little trick I came up with by accident that might be useful- just run over the file with your sandblaster. That will expose bare steel from underneath the dirty, oxidized layer and while the teeth will not be as sharp as new, you will likely get some more life out of an otherwise useless file.

Now that's an interesting idea. I'm going to try that out.

PremalChheda wrote:http://www.boggstool.com/

They will re-sharpen your files for about $2.00+ each

I'm with Premal. Give this company a shot. I think you'll be surprised.

PremalChheda wrote:http://www.boggstool.com/

They will re-sharpen your files for about $2.00+ each

Yes, and they will actually be sharper and cut cleaner than when they were brand new!
Old files really do make great tools, too though. I made several knifes from old files that sharpen well, and stay sharp a long time.

oklahoma red wrote:

PremalChheda wrote:http://www.boggstool.com/

They will re-sharpen your files for about $2.00+ each

I'm with Premal. Give this company a shot. I think you'll be surprised.

I have used Boggs Tool a few times, well worth the money to use them.

I tried the sandblast technique on one of my files and it worked great.