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Forums10
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Most Online1,258 Mar 29th, 2024
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Joined: Dec 2001
Posts: 6,992 Likes: 402
Sidelock
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Sidelock
Joined: Dec 2001
Posts: 6,992 Likes: 402 |
I will when I complete the one I make. The picture I saw was posted by Ian Sweetman on several FB gunsmithing forums, he is a superb finisher in the London trade.
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Joined: Jul 2012
Posts: 4,463 Likes: 207
Sidelock
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Sidelock
Joined: Jul 2012
Posts: 4,463 Likes: 207 |
LeFusil, I suspect gunmakers young enough for us to know would have served their apprenticeship after the time they had to make files, instead of buy them. My late friend, Helmut Kerner, gave me a hand made "Lauf Hobel"( a special form of file) that his grandfather, Emil Kerner, made . Helmut served his apprenticeship in the factory of his other grandfather( Meffert) in the middle 1930s. His grandfather, then, must have served his in the 1800s. Mike
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Joined: Jan 2013
Posts: 1,124 Likes: 195
Sidelock
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Sidelock
Joined: Jan 2013
Posts: 1,124 Likes: 195 |
Been down this road a number of times. For the Brits the file is a flat lolly pop shape, On the other side of the pond a disk about 1/2 diameter diameter about 1/4 inch thick with a 1/4 inch neck about an inch long set in a handle. The cutting part is the disk edge having serrations cut from face to face with a triangular file close together. If you want rounded bases on you drop points round the disk edges. You can use tool steel to make them but I always used mild steel and case hardened them, far easier to re sharpen they just went smaller over the years. I have looked high and low for my set of drop point files but cant find them, and stock making is out for me now, eyesight not so hot.
The only lessons in my life I truly did learn from where the ones I paid for!
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Joined: Feb 2010
Posts: 256 Likes: 5
Sidelock
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Sidelock
Joined: Feb 2010
Posts: 256 Likes: 5 |
When I started my apprenticeship at BSA Birmingham UK 1965 almost the first thing we had to do was take a block of steel 3x3x3 inches and had to file only make it square and true in all directions. This is very difficult to do and you scrap a few till it comes off. But afterwards you always remember how to file (holding it and body position is important). Spoke to some German engineers and they had to do the same thing. Just shows the difference between the two continents cultures US wants to machine everything.
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Joined: Jan 2004
Posts: 6,711 Likes: 411
Sidelock
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Sidelock
Joined: Jan 2004
Posts: 6,711 Likes: 411 |
Actually, I know someone here that told me of the cube filing exercise.
Last edited by BrentD; 05/30/20 05:31 PM.
_________ BrentD, (Professor - just for Stan)
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Joined: Jan 2002
Posts: 598 Likes: 58
Sidelock
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Sidelock
Joined: Jan 2002
Posts: 598 Likes: 58 |
I have a large dice which was hand filed by my uncle in Switzerland in the 1930's during his apprenticeship as a machinist. When learning to file years ago I tried to make cubes out of pieces of aluminium, with little success; it is very difficult.
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Joined: Jul 2012
Posts: 4,463 Likes: 207
Sidelock
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Sidelock
Joined: Jul 2012
Posts: 4,463 Likes: 207 |
Helmut Kerner, that I mentioned above, was tested in action filing and stock making for the two skills needed to get his Master's Cert. For the filing, he filed a plate 2cm thick, flat, 5x5cm, with parallel faces. He filed a 2cm square hole( I guess starting with drilled hole) in the plate and filed a 2cm cube that fit into the square hole at all orientations without light shining through the joints. It sounds simple. but it is not. Mike
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Joined: Jan 2004
Posts: 6,711 Likes: 411
Sidelock
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Sidelock
Joined: Jan 2004
Posts: 6,711 Likes: 411 |
It doesn't sound simple to me. Not at all.
_________ BrentD, (Professor - just for Stan)
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Joined: Jan 2002
Posts: 9,745 Likes: 743
Sidelock
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Sidelock
Joined: Jan 2002
Posts: 9,745 Likes: 743 |
Paul Bruchet had a tool that he made for rough fitting tubes into a mono block. It was made from a large piece of spring steel, the teeth were perhaps 2” long, and an inch wide, with a space between each of them. He called it a “float”, and the thing removed steel in a hurry. Never have seen anything like it.
Best, Ted
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Joined: Nov 2015
Posts: 598 Likes: 30
Sidelock
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OP
Sidelock
Joined: Nov 2015
Posts: 598 Likes: 30 |
I read where one of the tests for an apprentice was filing flat steel surfaces to a 'sucking fit' where they had to be slid apart. I assume a bit of oil was first applied?
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