Tom King Posted February 15, 2017 Report Share Posted February 15, 2017 In the past couple of months, I've bought a bunch of different brands of saw files off ebay thinking that I'd get around to comparing them some time. This morning I needed to sharpen a couple of backsaws for a Chinese Chippendale balustrade I'm building. I looked in the "Saw Sharp" toolbox, and I normally keep one of each of good files in a Lee Valley file holder. The saws are 12 and 13 pt., and the 4" slots were empty in the file holder, so I just grabbed the first new 4" X Slim I found, and went to work without thinking to look at what kind it was. The first saw needed one fairly hard pass (maybe 6 oz. of pressure), and one light stroke (maybe an oz. of pressure or less) on each tooth. I use one hand, start each stroke with the little smooth end sitting in the gullet, and it goes really quickly. About halfway down the first saw I thought, this file is cutting pretty good. I looked on one side of it, and it said "Mexico" in a circle, turned it over, and it said "Nicholson" in a circle. I was surprised. I know a few years ago that the made in Mexico Nicholsons were sorry stuff. I finished that saw and decided I'd try a different file on the next saw. The first new, different file I got my hands on was a red tailed Simonds. It cut okay too, but I felt like the Mexican Nicholson was better, and probably as good as some of my NOS American made files are. I went on to other stuff, and didn't spend any more time with files, but thought that this is pretty encouraging. edited to add: my new favorite file handle: Here's the file that I liked. It just came in a padded envelope inside a plain plastic sleeve: sold by ebay seller sirr0und $7.42 with free shipping. I gravitate towards the decent deals with free shipping. I couldn't copy the link without it also showing my personal ebay acct. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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