It is indeed a sad day when we must go far afield in this once great manufacturing nation to find so basic,and yet so essential a tool as a hand file. When I was young,a file was my milling machine,and I removed cubic inches of steel with them,spending whole days doing what I could now do in minutes. But,it was great training.
Yesterday I went by a Harbor Freight store in Newport News,Va.,and decided to stop as I hadn't been to it before. Things like acid brushes are something I use often,and I knew they would be found there.
I came across their file section and for the sum of $1.99,I decided to try out an 8" mill file. It hasn't the teeth I use the most(smooth),but rather has what Nicholson would call bastard cut. Nicholson flat handled These teeth,however,are about 1/2 as coarse as the regular old Bastard cut Nicholsons,and are double cut. Rather like the flat handled Nicholson "lawn mower blade" files. Good for coarser metal removal. Save the finer files for finishing surfaces. I never liked the inaccuracy of the teeth on the sides of Asian files. They are usually out of square with the flat surfaces,but these were pretty square. The file is also STRAIGHT(most Nicholsons haven't been for a very long time. And,the thickness of this file is like the thickness of the OLD Nicholsons. Nicholsons had gotten thinner over the years,and most usually had a curve to them. The worst is an "S" shaped curve where neither side is flat. You can't very well use an S shaped file to generate flat surfaces(unless you use short strokes,using only the convex part of the S shape!!) There is NO guarantee that all their files will be straight,OR have squarely cut sides. Examine EVERY file you buy. I hated plastic packaged files as you can't examine them for straightness. These were not packaged.
THE GOOD NEWS: This file is FULLY HARDENED!! It was just as hard as an old USA Nicholson I tested it's hardness with. I tested BOTH ends of the HF file,and both ends are perfectly hardened.
The teeth are quite evenly cut,and the file performed quite suitably on a piece of scrap mild steel. I don't know if the file will last as long as a good old USA file,but it seemed fine during the test. Being Chinese,I don't expect that his file is made of high carbon tool steel. Even if it is made of mild steel,case hardened,the surface is all that really matters,providing the case hardening is deep enough. I could only determine the depth of the case hardening by breaking the file in half,which I hate to do. Should have bought more than 1 I suppose,but I'd just had a large epidural in my back,and was feeling a bit strange and wanted to get home.
I can quibble that the file's sides aren't curved quite like the old Nicholsons,and I don't like the cheesy plastic(rather sticky) handle(which I cannot get off short of sawing it into pieces!) ,but,what the hey!! It's a USEFUL $1.99 file!!
I could not see a smooth 8" file for sale singly,though there was 1 included if you bought the plastic packaged assortment. It could be that they were just out of stock. I didn't ask because a question about the acid brushes took a great flurry to answer,and I needed to get home. Another time,I'll investigate further.
P.S.: In the past centuries,many files were made by case hardening them. While I can recommend this particular file, I have not examined their other files. I always find cheap sets of needle files to not be tapered enough,coming to their points too bluntly. And,often,they have flat spots on their corners where there are no teeth. On the best old needle files,the very edges are quite acute. I didn't look closely at their other shapes of files either,because of my injection I needed to leave . I'll report more another time when I'm down there,and I'll examine several of this same file I tested to see how consistent they are on the squareness of sides,straightness,etc.. You DO need to examine every file you buy,though. I can't see how the Chinese made this file to sell for $1.99.(Well,I know,cheap wages,etc.) But they did a good job on this one!
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