Hardness Testing Files: A noobie question

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VorpelSword

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Dec 27, 2007
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I am shopping around for things to support a family member who is just beginning to make knives in his garage.

Right now I am looking at files for testing hardness, but know next to nothing.

On Amazon, I am seeing sets that look good to me, but the price range for what seems to be the same thing runs from ~$30 to over 200.

What should I be looking at for a guy just getting into stock removal knife making.
 
Use the custom search engine for "testing files". This has a lot of past discussion.

Short answer, most sell in the $50-$70 range and are pretty much identical. The Fowler $200 files make no sense to me.

Test files aren't perfect, but if you are a hobbyist and not looking at an expensive hardness tester, they work fine for what they do.
 
Another option is Matt Parkinson's hardness chisels. They are in 2 HRC increments and you can re sharpen them as needed and they can work on san mai easier since they don't need the flat/parallel surface like a normal HRC tester. He has a small set and a larger set with more chisels.
 
You don’t say how much your looking to spend on this family member but If I was looking to gift someone just getting into knife making I’d look at getting them a Drill Doctor drill bit sharpener. I’ve had one for a long time and I’m sure it’s saved me hundreds upon hundreds of dollars. There’s nothing worse then drilling a specific size hole in barstock and the bit going dull, and not having another. I’m sure there’s a lot of folks here that can sharpen bits freehand but I’m not one of them. It only takes a minute to bring back a dull bit to brand new with a Drill Doctor.
 
I tried a few different types of these hardness testers and could not discern the correct hardness of steels. They might be slightly helpful but I wouldn’t waste my money. I got better results just using an old file and years of experience.

Hoss
 
Thank yolu all.

I am just exploring the ways I can facilitate this new direction in a distraction form his day job. Day job is fulfilling and viewed as a calling, but can become all-consuming. Advice from successful peers is to do something creative with his hands weekly.

This must be an evolving project for him, and I can nudge it along from time to time.

A drill bit sharpener sounds like a good idea.
 
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