Period Files?

The files on the fur company ledgers- does anyone have any idea what they looked like? I don't. I think files at the time were hand cut and the tangs were a little different. Sam Colt worked on a machine that would mass produce files so I THINK (not sure) that pre-1840 files were hand cut.
As I understand matters the file used as a draw file on a knife blade made tiny microscopic serrations. The blade wasn't "keen" in the respect of a fine razor hone but the serrations cut okay for a short time and then after a few days or a big job the edge was filed again. The general notion is that the blades had a rather soft temper and were used a lot so that is why the blades ended up looking like fish fillet knives. Modern meat cutters have blades that end up looking like a fish fillet knife so that may be true but I have wondered if sharpening with a file speeded up this wearing away of the blade.

The absolute BEST book on early tools I have run across is "A Catalogue of Tools for Watch and Clock Makers" by John Wyke of Liverpool. http://www.winterthurstore.com/pro...d-Clock-Makers-by-John-Wyke-of-Liverpool.html

About 10 years ago, I stopped by the Gun Shop in Colonial Williamsburg and asked what they used for reference materials for the hand tools they used. They showed me a reproduction of this catalog that did not have the tool explanations in them. However, there told me the published ones DO have explanations of the tools. Though the catalogue was aimed at Clock Makers, there are pages and pages of tools ANY metal working trade that used fine tools would have considered this better than the old Sears and Roebuck catalog. Files, vises of all sorts, hammers, saws, hand pliers, etc., etc., etc. are in this book. I have quite a few books on 18th/19th century tools, but this one is BY FAR the best reference.
Gus

I'll check that out, thanks.

Here's some reference material you might find useful. http://www.wkfinetools.com/hUS/file_zIndex/files-index.asp

Yes files would have hand cut back then. I have actually seen them made by hand before. For a single cut file they have a special cold chisel that they use to make each row of teeth. The action is to hit the chisel with a hammer and then give a slight rocking motion up to raise the tooth.

Obviously the file was annealed so it was soft. Then after it was cut it was hardened. Some if not maybe most were sharpened with a 60 deg saw file like we use to sharpen a rip tooth profile hand saw.

You can actually still buy hand cut files which can be sharpened in this manner and the manufacturing has changed little if non at all.

In Wyke's catalogue, it mentions that small and small specialty files were more the products of Lancashire while Sheffield made larger files, when talking about metal working files. This seems to suggest Lancashire was more involved with supplying the tools to the “finer” or more exacting metal working arts than Sheffield. The files are all double cut and ran from what was called “rough” to “ smooth smooth.” Yes, the use of the word “smooth” twice in a row means it was a very fine cutting file for the most delicate filing in watch making. What this tells us is that in the mid to late 18th century, they had “file cuts” fine enough someone could have used them to sharpen a trade knife, though of course it would have given a better edge had they used “A Turkey Stone” or other whet stone.

Now as to shape of the file. By the mid 1750’s, they had every shape of file we use today and some we no longer use much, if any at all. One shape of file that comes up time and again in the archeological records of frontier forts and blacksmithing sites, if not perhaps the most common shape, is the Half Round (Sort of spear point) or Warding or Barrette file shape with a triangular shaped tang a bit wider and shorter than we see on files today. I included the link for examples of Half Round, Warding and even Barrette File Shapes. http://paulbudzik.com/tools-techniques/Files/files.html

Now I can not document why those shapes come up so common in the archeological record. However from MANY years of using hand files on steel and wood to build Ultra Tight fitting National Match Pistols and Rifles, I have my own speculation on why those shapes were so common. I believe the wide shape to the rear and tapering down to a point allowed them to use one file for both larger sections to file as well as get into smaller places when they needed to with the pointed tips, but did not require them to have two or more files when they did not need them. Hand Cut files were EXPENSIVE in the time period because they had to be made completely from steel or at least the best grades of wrought iron and then carburized and hardened/annealed. So if you could get away with one file instead of two or three, that saved you a LOT of money in those days.

Gus

Thanks for the information. As I said, I never thought much about files but they were needed to shoe a horse, sharpen an axe, some knives. Sort of an overlooked tool.

Files were the item most requested by the natives from the Corp of Discovery. They had already traded for knives and hawks, often through many tribes, but needed some way to sharpen them. :idunno:

There was one type of file called a "Rubber" in the period. It even occasionally shows up in British Military Armorers' lists of tools. It was used to draw file metal and from the few period accounts I've been able to come up with so far, "rubber's" seem to have been very coarse as they took metal off quickly. I don't think they would have been used for sharpening knives, but they may have been used on axes. I bet they were in the kits of many blacksmiths to rough shape iron items.

Gus

The rough-out using a "rubber" was usually done on red hot (or hotter) iron as the steel in the file tended to have a bit of impurities. Also great for shaping handles.

Will

Thanks Will,

I've often heard it said a Blacksmith can save an hour of filing by taking and extra 10 minutes of careful forging.

Gus