Terrible news! I had this beautiful vallorbe flat needle file that cut extremely well. I pushed a bit too hard on it and ended up with three files. Any recommendations for new needle files? Magnus
Sorry, only familiar with Crappy tire regular files and Princess Auto diamond files, which for the price last as long as they last lol. Hope that wasn’t too expensive.
I've only used the file sets from Lee Valley and KMS Tools and like Griff says, they're consumables. But I'm curious now. According to the Vallorbe web site ( https://www.vallorbe.com/en-ch/dealers ) it looks like there's three dealers in Canada and the one in London, Ont seemed to have the file you're looking for online. No price though which seems ominous. What's your thoughts? Are they pricey? Do you find them worth the investment? One thought might be to contact Vallorbe. They appear to be premium tool suppliers so maybe they have a replacement policy. Good luck, I'll be interested to hear what you decide Dave
I'll second (third?) the sentiment. I've always gone with the cheap needle files, considering them as throwaways, like Dremel bits. For me, it comes down to return on investment -- how many hours your get out of them for the price.
I've had several throw-away sets, even some cheap diamond coated ones, certainly broke a few along the way. But I have never regretted buying one quality set. Now I rely on one cut #0 Swiss set from Guesswein. Lasting well. Use them a lot especially when slotting bolsters. They were extremely not cheap. A couple hundred for a set and that was five years ago. In hind-sight, I would probably buy the two or three that I use the most and get good ones of those like this. https://www.gessweincanada.com/product-p/715-1100m.htm Dan
Dan, I'm on board with you about the quality files. Having used some good ones there's no way I'm going back. Thanks for the link, looks like the 16 cm and 20 cm cut #0 equaling files are a reasonable price. I'll probably order a few of each. Magnus
Which files would you recommend Dan? I just started making through tang knives and those bolsters are a bit of a struggle for me. This thread is getting me thinking a few good files might be a good investment. Dave
They got some weird names and different manufacturers call them different things. I use the the pillar or equaling or flat, these are all rectangles; a three square (triangle) and round the most. Swiss cut #0 or the coarsest #00. They range from #00 coarse to #6 very fine as far as I know. The pillar I really like because it doesn't have teeth on the small sides.
I see PFERD has a couple of types available (Swiss Pattern needle files and Swiss Pattern CORINOX (trademark name) needle files for stainless). Not sure of the details yet but I was wondering which file you picked. Thanks Dave
I screwed up and ordered needle rasps. I have a 12" PFERD file have not used it yet, the rest of my files I bought from KBC tools Nicolson and the house brand.
for files and stones peak around tool & die catalogs. I didn't save any links in hopes of not mortgaging the house
