Home Forums Gear Knives and Blades Who doesn't like a file knife?

There's something about a file knife. So here's the file capers I've been working on. Pretty handy little knives. 6 3/4 long with a 3 1/8 blade. Trust me that file steel is screaming sharp!

I really like the looks of a file knife but really wouldn't want to have to clean the gunk out of the file portion. Blood, fat, hair, food particles, and whatever in those fine grooves have to be a pain in the rear to clean all the time.

yeah I know but if you grind all the coolness off of it, it's just a bar of steel...

Grinder or forged?

Beautiful work there. I’ve made my share of file knives myself, with two on my bench currently. You did a great job on those.

Love those knives, great work

grinder

Great looking knives. Files are kind of brittle, do you temper them ?

Clean a file with a file card, you could clean these the same way...

I very much dig those! The shape and the looks! Very well done!

I like those a lot!

Have two that Dan made for me 7 or 8 years ago with 100+ year old ARCADE harrier rasps.

You anneal them, then profile and grind. Afterwards, the blades are re-heat treated, tempered, then ground to final dimensions. Prior to all this, a section of the file is tested to see IF the file steel is suitable (will harden correctly). If so, then proceed with annealing-> finished product. Many current production files are only surface hardened….not suitable. I only use old, vintage files, for that reason. They almost always are suitable for bladework.

Again, beautiful work OP.

Those are very nice knives.

Don't see many file knives that clean up that well.

I personally love the look of a file knife. Something old school, rugged and basic about it that works for me!

Yours look good. I don't fool with them forging because simple steel is so cheap There's no need to fool with testing the steel to see if it will work. Old files were mostly good steel but who knows what kinds of additives are in today's files.

Used to buy scores of older files for this purpose at the flea market. Vintage American made Nicholson, Heller, Hays and Arcade files are excellent. Arcade files with the Horseshoe Trademark were always a personal favorite. Newer production steel files that are made in China, Taiwan or Pakistan don’t work.

Exactly! That’s what I use. I also stay away from Belotta horseshoe rasps. Made in Brazil. Work fine for horses….very questionable for a blade.

The old American files are high carbon steel

Well all I can say is I've never had a flat file that failed to fully harden. I quench in Parks50 abd have my heat treat numbers down, so maybe that helps. As for horse rasps, I've had a few Nicholsons fail to harden but then I've had some Belotas harden and make great knives.

I make file knives because I think they are cool. Kinda neat to make something out of grandpa's old tool from the 30's. My hunting knife when I elk hunt is a Nicholson file. Skinned many an elk with that so I know it's good steel.

That’s the one that you made for me Dan!