reindeer games

[Ambull01]

Well I'll tell y'all, not one of us files properly! Back in 1973 more or less I went to a vo-tech and one of the first things taught in machine shop was how to file. I don't remember details but for starters a file never touched metal without chalk on it. Wonder how much file chalk is sold these days? Secondly a file was cleaned after every stroke and rechalked if necessary. It never touched metal other than the metal it was cutting. Needless to say, you put pressure on the teeth only in the direction of the cut and lifted completely off of the material during the reverse motion. A lot more about angles and pressure and such but I've slept a lot of times since then!

I do have files in good shape I have used over ten years, and I have files I wear out fairly quickly. I can file to a tiny fraction of a thousandth of an inch and I can sharpen chains and butcher knives with a file. Criminal to some butcher knives, perfect for the Old Hickory high carbon black iron blades that are used and abused. Old Hickory knives are perfect for work knives and I have worn out over a dozen boning knives. Still have a few laying around for shop knives. When you use them cutting things that require you sharpening every ten or fifteen minutes in the field there is no time for niceties and a file is the sharpener of choice.

We all abuse files according to "best practices", most knowing full well we could treat them better. I clean my saw file after every tooth and lift completely off on the backstroke. If I take more than a few strokes on a tooth I will clean mid-tooth. Chalk, a light oil, or graphite would no doubt prolong the life of my saw files. Somewhere speed and convenience meets up with file life and cost. That can be a little different spot for all of us!

Hu

How do you clean your saw files, same way as a flat file (file card thingy)? You think kids sidewalk chalk would work? I have tons of them lol

 

[Jim Timber]

You only need chalk on aluminum. I was taught how to do it in 1982, and the instruction my dad gave me was the same as the instructions I received in the vo-tech program where they certified me as a manual and cnc machinist. But hey, wtf do I know?

 

[shootingarts]

How do you clean your saw files, same way as a flat file (file card thingy)? You think kids sidewalk chalk would work? I have tons of them lol

I once owned one of those card thingies, bought it the same time I bought chalk when I wanted to be a Machinist back a hunnert years ago! Now I use a brush, sometimes an old toothbrush I clean tight spots on the saw with, sometimes a chip brush, sometimes an old paint brush, sometimes a wire brush, if it got bristles on it and ain't a pig or an ex I'll use it on my saw file! Most of those brush bristles are kinda oily so that might be of some benefit.

Aside from being white, the file chalk looked a lot like sidewalk chalk. Should work just fine as long as you never ever use pink chalk!

Hu

 

[Ambull01]

I once owned one of those card thingies, bought it the same time I bought chalk when I wanted to be a Machinist back a hunnert years ago! Now I use a brush, sometimes an old toothbrush I clean tight spots on the saw with, sometimes a chip brush, sometimes an old paint brush, sometimes a wire brush, if it got bristles on it and ain't a pig or an ex I'll use it on my saw file! Most of those brush bristles are kinda oily so that might be of some benefit.

Aside from being white, the file chalk looked a lot like sidewalk chalk. Should work just fine as long as you never ever use pink chalk!

Hu

Nice. Now I have a use for the dust pan brush my dog chewed the handle off of. Little bastard. What's wrong with pink!? I have sidewalk chalk all over the damn place. Find them all in my house, in the yard, along the driveway. Been thinking about good uses for them. So far I'm going to use them to mark my bucking cuts and for filing. If it helps that at all with filing of course. Is the reason for the chalk to fill up the spaces in the file so metal can't fill it? Only reason I can think of that makes sense to me.

 

[Jim Timber]

I didn't use chalk once and loaded up 2 of my dad's files with aluminum. I'm surprised he didn't peen me with them when he discovered it. Got lectured about the chalk and file card.

I card my files. It's just habit now, but I've been known to use my jeans out dressing chains in the woods. I don't run around with a card everywhere.

 

[RiverRat2]

Files only cut one way, you are seriously reducing the files life and ability to cut. They only cut on the push.... lift, reposition, and push again. Never drag a file back.

Correct!!!!!!!

 

[Jim Timber]

Chalk keeps soft metals from sticking in the gullets on the file teeth. Oil helps them cut too, but it's messier and not always needed.

 

[shootingarts]

You only need chalk on aluminum. I was taught how to do it in 1982, and the instruction my dad gave me was the same as the instructions I received in the vo-tech program where they certified me as a manual and cnc machinist. But hey, wtf do I know?

The elderly gentleman that taught me was way past retirement age in the early seventies and used books older than dirt back then. Pretty sure he might have invented files! While aluminum embeds in files worse than most things the training back then was to chalk filing anything. I have spent a lot of time abusing a scribe or pick cleaning steel out of the bottoms of teeth when a brush or file card wouldn't clean it out. With chalk you get little or none of that.

An NC aside, we had an NC lathe at the vo-tech. Worked off of punch cards and the only program turned a trailer hitch ball. $250,ooo raised from the local petro-chem plants by the instructor himself to purchase that machine in the early seventies, maybe equal to a million or two now. Mr Jones was a small man, but a giant! Still remember much of his teaching although I didn't get to complete the course.

Hu

 

[Ambull01]

Chalk keeps soft metals from sticking in the gullets on the file teeth. Oil helps them cut too, but it's messier and not always needed.

The elderly gentleman that taught me was way past retirement age in the early seventies and used books older than dirt back then. Pretty sure he might have invented files! While aluminum embeds in files worse than most things the training back then was to chalk filing anything. I have spent a lot of time abusing a scribe or pick cleaning steel out of the bottoms of teeth when a brush or file card wouldn't clean it out. With chalk you get little or none of that.

An NC aside, we had an NC lathe at the vo-tech. Worked off of punch cards and the only program turned a trailer hitch ball. $250,ooo raised from the local petro-chem plants by the instructor himself to purchase that machine in the early seventies, maybe equal to a million or two now. Mr Jones was a small man, but a giant! Still remember much of his teaching although I didn't get to complete the course.

Hu

Cool. If I mess up my brand new fancy pants Stihl files I'm blaming you two

 

[wyk]

reindeer,
don't go to the trouble .......... that's all you will get
Those that have interacted with you know the truth, and we all know brush ape (or whatever sign on name he could think of ), so you shouldn't ever feel the need to put up such personal stuff, but VERY nice pictures (as allways) !!!!!

I would take a vacation just to work in those woods !!!

Good. I could use some help when I am on Rhododendron duty. Which, btw, will require a 50cc saw, or a ported 43cc saw. Some of it is as big as your leg and as hard as rock, and then there's the tar it leaves on the saws... I like to consider it environmental protection. Hope it isn't acidic...

 

[Overclock]

I am just the woodsman.

Are you the woodsman?

 

[HuskStihl]

There are to many filings on the chain.

They come right off when I put the tip in the dirt!

 

[gary courtney]

You can always address me toe to toe. The long-standing members should honor the responsibility to show correct c
hain sharpening on youtube especially if they quote even more long-standing members. I know you wouldn't hacksaw your fi

reindeer, you have handled yourself well!

 

[gary courtney]

another thing I have learned in life, when I try to defend myself to others I make them my judge!

 

[Overclock]

.........perfect for the Old Hickory high carbon black iron blades that are used and abused. Old Hickory knives are perfect for work knives and I have worn out over a dozen boning knives.

If I could only have one knife in the camp it would be the Chicago Cutlery Old Hickory paring knife.

 

[HuskStihl]

another thing I have learned in life, when I try to defend myself to others I make them my judge!

Getting married has a similar effect

 

[woodeneye]

Hey reindeer, don't mind Ovensock, he's kinda new here. I too have made a few knives in my day, this one is one of my favs, even though I didn't make the blade for this particular one. I was too lazy to get my forge out, but I make a very similar blade shape, more of a Norwegian skinner, as seen in the second pic. I use only hand tools. Eggbeater style drills, braces, small files, rasps, and such. Takes me about a day to handle a knife like these, another to forge the blade.

 

[towingace]

I have never heard about the chalk trick before, learn something new every day. Unbelieveably, I just learned, a few days ago, that I have been peeling banana's from the wrong end all my life.

 

[Overclock]

I have never heard about the chalk trick before, learn something new every day. Unbelieveably, I just learned, a few days ago, that I have been peeling banana's from the wrong end all my life.

That's what the forums are for. Gettin' educated.

 

[woodeneye]

I wonder if I put that top knife in the trading post, do you think it would see any action?