Hi Arch

Case hardening is apparently used with some, though I doubt that the
fracturing has any bearing on that but rather economic reasons, I still
use big body files (auto industry type) for scrapers, the price is
right and the steel is hard to beat for scrapers, (they also have teeth
only on one side, makes for a lot less work) if you go to thin files
they are brittle and I do not use them for making tools, one could after
properly heat treating, but there is not much of a profit to be had by
doing so, but I find the loose tips you can buy for screw drivers (power
as well as handheld) the long ones are 4,5,6" long to be real good steel
for making small tools and I've gotten some at surplus places for a buck
apiece, and for still smaller tools I do use concrete nails, they work
well and one could make a dozen tools for next to nothing, you can roll
the nail as opposed to a square piece of hss tool steel, and those of
course can be used as inserts in other home made tools.
By the way when was the last time you fractured a file by using it as a
file, as opposed to a levering tool ???

Have fun and take care
Leo Van Der Loo

Arch wrote:
I think the low cost of hss tool bits makes masonry naiIs and files
obsolete. We used to be warned about using them, but many of us did and
lived to tell about it. I've heard that today's masonry nails and files
are thinly case hardened and their soft innards remove the risk of
fracturing. True?


Turn to Safety, Arch
Fortiter



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