Saw files: What to buy?

[Gary Cunningham]

I have a few Disston saws (D8 rip & crosscut, D20 rip) and they all need sharpened.

What brand/type of files would you reccomend?

[Nicholas Lawrence]

The distonnian institute website has a section on sizing saw files to the saws. I think they sell them, or you can get them in most hardware stores.

[Phil Mueller]

I have had good success with Bahco taper files and Grobet needle files.

[lowell holmes]

I have had good success with Bahco taper files and Grobet needle files.

Amazon has a good selection of saw files.

[Mike Brady]

Nicholas, I wish the saw file situation was as easy as you suggest. I don't recall Disstonian Institute referencing saw filing or files. Also, it has been quite a few years since you could buy a decent saw file at a hardware store. Lee Valley has some again after being out for awhile. There is no US manufacturing of triangular files. Mexico and India are file-making economies currently, and their quality is highly suspect. For larger tooth saws such as 8ppi rip, there are files made my Nicholson in Mexico that can get you through a sharpening. The bad news is: How often do you need to sharpen a coarse rip saw? I use needle files on my rip back saws up to 15 ppi. There are sources on YouTube for saw filing instruction. Lie-Nielsen has one. The best I know of is Ron Herman's DVD on saw filing and tuning, available from Popular Woodworking.

[Nicholas Lawrence]

My apologies. I was thinking of Vintage Saws, which does have the sharpening guide.

I know for a while everyone was saying the Bahco's were the only files worth buying because the Nicholsons were so bad. Then George Wilson mentioned a while ago that he was able to get decent files under the Nicholson brand from the local home store. I have gotten a couple from my local hardware store that seem to work fine.

[Jim McGee]

Lee Valley caries Bahco saw files

[john zulu]

+1 to bahco. Cheap and sharp. I have used it on holesaws to even frostner bits. Still on my first file.

[Mike Brady]

Glad to hear about Bahco. The Grobet files seem to have fallen out of favor with suppliers. Lie-Nielsen doesn't seem to carry many saw files anymore, which I take to mean they lack confidence in any brand. They sold Grobet for a period of time.

[george wilson]

I will repeat,WITH CAUTION that the last MILL file I bought(Nicholson Mexican) was just fine. I was SO relieved to find that out. They seemed to have solved their early problems of decarbing making soft surface files. Theye could always be old new stock out there,of earlier Mexican made files.

[Steve Voigt]

I will repeat,WITH CAUTION that the last MILL file I bought(Nicholson Mexican) was just fine. I was SO relieved to find that out. They seemed to have solved their early problems of decarbing making soft surface files. Theye could always be old new stock out there,of earlier Mexican made files.

George, I think "with caution" is about right. A couple anecdotal observations:

The new Nicholsons are being sold as "black diamond" files. Back in the old days, black diamond was AFAIK a premium file, so maybe Nicholson is trying to recapture that reputation for quality. Let's hope it's not just marketing hype.

I bought one of the black diamonds (a 6" XX slim) and it seemed to work quite well on my saws. Some time later, I made a couple O1 floats, which is a lot harder on a file than saw-filing. I started with a Bahco, which worked well. As Isaac Smith has written, the edge does not hold up as well for cutting new teeth (as opposed to sharpening old ones) as vintage American-made files, but still it worked pretty well. Unfortunately that file was on its last legs when I started. After heat-treating my floats, I used the Bahco to file off the scale from heat treating, and that killed the file. So, I switched to one of the new Nicholsons. It didn't hold up well at all. The floats were harder than the LN floats, but still within filing hardness, but the Nicholson was dead in minutes. Then I switched to a Simonds red tang, which I had been meaning to try since Tom King recommended them here. Man, that thing was a champ, much better than the Nicholson.

Now, that's the only Simonds I've tried, and I've used a total of two of the new Nicholsons, so it would be unwise to draw any hard and fast conclusions. But I did order three more Simonds yesterday…

[george wilson]

I think the Simmonds are made in India. So you are fortunate.

[Matt Bainton]

Where were the Simonds from, Steve?

[Steve Voigt]

Matt, I got them on Amazon, they are easy to find.

[Normand Leblanc]

No later than yesterday I had someone home who wanted his rip saw to be sharpen. It was in really bad shape and I pulled a new Grobet file (bought from LV) from my stock. The file was gone in minutes. Pulled a second one with the same result.
I look again in my stock, found an old file that was part of a lot purchase identified K&F Canada, sharpen that saw with it and could probably do 3 or 4 more saws like that one.
The difference between the old files and the new ones is amazing.