Saw Files

[D_W]

a 40 year old nicholson file will be superior to anything nicholson has made in the last 10 years.

Their files are made in mexico now and a lot of the early mexico files were terrible, but they are getting a little bit better. They are only worth considering if they are much less expensive than bahco or available in a size that bacho doesn't manufacture.

Bahco makes the best saw files in production now (in regard to durability) and probably has for 10 years. I understand that they're expensive some places, and that's unfortunate. They're not cheap here in the states, but if one has a need, boxes of ten are very reasonable considering the quality. ($5-$8 per file or so depending on size).

 

[Nigel Burden]

I have an old Nicholson saw file that was my fathers. It's probably 60 or 70 years old and is superb.

A word about double ended files. I have a Bahco and I couldn't get the handle off to turn it to the unused end with the result that it broke.

Nigel.

 

[AndyT]

A word about double ended files. I have a Bahco and I couldn't get the handle off to turn it to the unused end with the result that it broke.

Nigel.

Presumably that was with the Bahco moulded plastic handle - the same thing happened to me, wasting half of a good file. Those handles look so sensible at first, with the soft grip sections, but the old style wooden handle with the three saw cuts is functionally superior.

 

[Fidget]

A word about double ended files. I have a Bahco and I couldn't get the handle off to turn it to the unused end with the result that it broke.

Nigel.

Presumably that was with the Bahco moulded plastic handle - the same thing happened to me, wasting half of a good file. Those handles look so sensible at first, with the soft grip sections, but the old style wooden handle with the three saw cuts is functionally superior.

Well that's a relief!

When my Bahco file arrived from Workshop Heaven, the first thing I did was stick in the supplied handle, after reading Nigel's post I muttered a few swear words and hoped it wouldn't happen to me. Thankfully WH provided a wooden handle with the 3 cuts

 

[ED65]

...the old style wooden handle with the three saw cuts is functionally superior.

That's good to know, I've managed to salvage two or three. But I've also been lucky enough to pick up a few of the smallest size (size 0?) of Python handles which I like for files of this sort of dimension.

Anyone facing a stuck plastic handle on a double-ended file, try sticking the handle in hot or boiling water for a bit. This works even on harder plastics/resins than you'd expect, including acetate. Great dodge to know if you're restoring old Marples chisels or similar and want to work on the handle and blade separately.

 

[Nigel Burden]

Yes it was a Bahco plastic handle. I ended up drilling through the end, and using a punch, hammered it out. At least I can re-use the handle on a tanged file.

Nigel.