shop files

[Rick Leeson]

It has come to my attention there is a strange situation with files. The machinist books list 6 grades of cutting teeth: rough, coarse, bastard, second-cut, smooth, and dead smooth.

However the shop supply books only list the bastard, second-cut, and smooth to purchase. Apparently the other grades of cut are no longer produced?

 

[tmickley]

I've don't recall seeing them and I've looked at MSC, Enco and other catalogs till I'm cross eyed.

 

[Mike Hull]

You might ask the folks at Boggs. They do file resharpening, as well as selling them. If they don't know, they will find out for you.
http://www.boggstool.com/

 

[RJ Martin]

Those 3 grades will do most of your typical file-work, so they're the most common.

 

[claude]

Hi Rick
Most supply stores need four pieces of information in order to sell you the file in which you need. They are cross section (triangular, flat, mill, square etc.) then they will ask what cut (single, double, curved, or rasp) also they will ask you length (taken from the heel to the point) and last the degree of coarseness (rough,coarse,bastard,secondcut,smooth and deadsmooth). The most common are the ones spoken of in the above columns, The rough and coarse files are mostly used for heavy metal removal and quite often come in double cut. Double cut files are used for cross filing which remove larger amounts of metal than single cut files which are used for draw filing. Curved tooth files are used on aluminum or auto body repair places on bondo, big spaces between teeth so they won't pin. Rasps are used on wood. Hope this helps you out,
Claude