Texas Repoussé

[crystallographic]

[QUOTE=Mavigogun;173209] snip) I’ve been predisposed to eschew the vixen, but will just have to come to terms with it. (snip


My experience as a 20yr. old apprentice was a matter of choosing wisely.
If I chose well, then I was rewarded with deep insights, personal events/stories, and shared experiences.
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traditional metal-working files (no plastic, no wood), American patterns/Euro patterns. (w/tang.)

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Vixen-style "curved tooth body files" (no tang)
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Two old Vixen files, made by Vixen File Co., patent-holder of the design bearing their name.

Forged steel file holder, top, mfgd "PLOMB Tool MFG Co." 1930's.
The Vixen tanged 14in. file is the best file I ever used, (over the 22 years that I shoved and dragged it over...um...a thousand miles, on a hundred fine autos. It is an 8T on one side and a 12T opposite. Sharped it professionally 4 times. Tooth angle was approaching 80deg and only plowing the surface, instead of whisking off weightless feathers. So it became "holder of experiences."

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Shaped aluminum, .050" 3003, being "edge filed" with special file/holder combo. Mfgd Austria, (17th gen family file maker/descendant runs the company today.) (Advises Aus. nat'l ski team on edge sharpening.)

might note that this bottom surface has been "dressed" to minimize roughness .... this also magnified tool marks ... like the measured rhythmic stomps of the Air Power Hammer - opposite the repeated-arch cascades of the old thumbnail Pullmax shrink dies. (1994)


(Aluminum Examples previously = .050" 3003, 1965 289 Cobra ...

and .040" 3003, from 1957 Ferrari factory race-team car.)
................ and ...

Were I to choose poorly, I was left to menial tasks, happily in my lonsesome.

The five years I apprenticed days, while working nights in a resto shop, and weekends re-invigorating an old farm truck forged an intense educational elliptic to my life trajectory.


It's wise for me to make correct effort to choose well.

[blue62]

Kent,
Wonderful examples of great old files.
sadly I don't think Heller, Simonds,or Nicholson are made in the USA anymore. The last Nicholson I purchased was made in Mexico.
Simons... India I think

I have not seen a Heller or Delta in ages.
When I was interested and trying my hand at custom gunstock making I acquired some nice wood working files out of Germany but that source is long gone.

[crystallographic]

Originally Posted by blue62

Kent,
Wonderful examples of great old files.
sadly I don't think Heller, Simonds,or Nicholson are made in the USA anymore. The last Nicholson I purchased was made in Mexico.
Simons... India I think

I have not seen a Heller or Delta in ages.
When I was interested and trying my hand at custom gunstock making I acquired some nice wood working files out of Germany but that source is long gone.

Sad to see the awesome American file companies fade out ...
We do carry some very good files now.
It took over a year of constant effort to round up good replacements ...
https://www.tinmantech.com/products/...files-holders/

Ford bought out all of our stock of Simonds "bodi-files" a couple of years back. They were completely unobtanium ... we found some originals (few boxes of them) 10 years ago ... now gone too.

[crystallographic]

Rough lumpy metal, bashed and beat on.
Brass. Old. Valuable.
Basic hand tools: small hammer, Marlin spike (12in), deep reach hammer
Good lighting.
Comfortable working position.

Attachment 63092
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Attachment 63094

Sometimes you never know what is under the lumps and bashing, nicks and gouges....
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Attachment 63098

1800's French "bowl mfr" was hammered in "courses" - marked lines circumferential, starting heaviest hammering at outer edge and proceeding lighter towards Center.
Cool stuff to find when carefully planishing.
(Very particular customer and collection.)

[blue62]

Originally Posted by crystallographic

Sad to see the awesome American file companies fade out ...
We do carry some very good files now.
It took over a year of constant effort to round up good replacements ...
https://www.tinmantech.com/products/...files-holders/

Ford bought out all of our stock of Simonds "bodi-files" a couple of years back. They were completely unobtanium ... we found some originals (few boxes of them) 10 years ago ... now gone too.

Yes,
You are my source for metal working files.
Also most of my Martin hammers and dollies

[Overkill]

Not trying to get off topic here, but I was having a problem with the new Diamond brand files I purchased locally. I discovered that when I put a flat edge across the file, it was cupped (concave) in the the middle. I took my straight edge to Ace Hardware, and all the files had the same issue.

I was speaking to Boggs Tools about sharpening some of my vixen files and mentioned my issue. He said it wasn't uncommon with todays files.

[Chris_Hamilton]

Pferd files are still flat. Kent may know of others but those are the best new files there are.

https://www.pferd.com/int-en/product...ar-body-files/

[crystallographic]

Originally Posted by Overkill

Not trying to get off topic here, but I was having a problem with the new Diamond brand files I purchased locally. I discovered that when I put a flat edge across the file, it was cupped (concave) in the the middle. I took my straight edge to Ace Hardware, and all the files had the same issue.

I was speaking to Boggs Tools about sharpening some of my vixen files and mentioned my issue. He said it wasn't uncommon with todays files.

Harry Boggs will re-sharp -
... and some files can be saved .... but not concave ones ... that "slipped" through copious inspection.
(Be sure to label and clearly inventory your curved tooth files that go out for sharpening ... somehow, some can go missing when not clearly inventoried on the "sharpen request."

"Diamond" that we used to know - may now indeed be sourced from far distant villagers.
(thinking of the rural Taiwan chicken farm that was packaging up US Airline eating utensils in their home kitchen. circa 1975.)