Black Oxide Hand Files - McMaster-Carr

[ScottB]

Has anyone tried these? I'm planning to buy a 12" HR from McMaster, and the black oxide coating caught my eye with this description:

"When durability is a necessity, black-oxide coating is the answer—these files resist clogging and rusting, and keep the sharp edge on their teeth better than standard files."

I'm intrigued, but the fact that a 12" HR with black oxide coating costs LESS than a regular one makes me suspicious about the quality.

Anyone with experience on this type of hand file?

[Doug Fattic]

One American company that makes nice files with a black oxide coating is Simonds. I've used them along with other files from other companies for years. They are one of the companies I can recommend as making good sharp files. I think the black oxide coating doesn't really make that much difference but it does actually help keep them from rusting. I like the look. My favorite files between Simonds (2nd choice), Nickelson (3rd choice) (now made in Brazil) and Grobet (4th choice) are from the Save Edge company in Xenia, Ohio. They don't actually make the blanks (which they import from somewhere) but do the cutting of the teeth. They seem the sharpest of any of the files. However they have minimum orders so it isn't possible to just order a few. They also have a sharpening service for files that have gotten dull. However this process doesn't work so well if the teeth have broken off. They also make the Swiss Pattern files that I find so useful for doing lug edges or finish filing after brazing. You have to ask, they are not on their website. I would never buy "import" files as they seem to come from India and get dull just looking at them.

[afwalker]

Anybody know what the minimum order from Save Edge is?
I'd like some good files if a couple of us could split a few boxes, unless it's like 10 boxes, a dozen each...
cheers
andy walker

[Andrew Drummond]

The black oxide files I've bought from McMaster turned out to be Simonds, but they're (mostly) made in Honduras now. Mine have held up reasonably well. I also have some older, US-made Simonds files that I got in an auction lot, and I haven't been able to see the difference - but I haven't had the newer ones for long.

Andrew

[Doug Fattic]

I called the Save Edge company today to find out their minimums. Unfortunately there are 2 new problems. One is that they just recently decided to no longer sell direct but rather through dealers only and 2nd they are stopping production of their industrial files (the ones we would buy). They are continuing to sell Laminate files for the wood industry, chainsaw files and farrier files that are used for shoeing horses. They will continue to offer file resharpening services. As I understand it one can still go directly to them for their resharpening service.

[afwalker]

Thanks for trying Doug! Even you couldn't persuade them.
cheers
andy walker

[false_aesthetic]

Bringing this thread back around.
I ordered 3 of the McMaster files and they're performing poorly -- they just felt dull from the get-go.

Kind've a bummer but it was worth a shot.

[e-RICHIE]

Bringing this thread back around.
I ordered 3 of the McMaster files and they're performing poorly -- they just felt dull from the get-go.

Kind've a bummer but it was worth a shot.

Get Bahco or Grobet.

[false_aesthetic]

Get Bahco or Grobet.

That's what I'm doin'. Your previous threads and recent IG post pushed me that way.

-T-

[EricKeller]

where do you get Bahco files? It looks like they have consumer grade files, or are they all the same?

[e-RICHIE]

where do you get Bahco files? It looks like they have consumer grade files, or are they all the same?

Production Tool Supply





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[false_aesthetic]

Production Tool Supply has them www.pts-tools.com