Handles for NOS Large Square Files

It’s customary every post begins with “it’s been a year since my last post” so with that out of the way…

Well, it’s Christmas day and the office is closed so around here that means old tool restoration project. But today’s a little different even though everything is vintage it’s all NOS! So, all I have to do is pretty stuff up to make liking and assemble, what a treat! Today I’m working on some > 1/2-Inch square files, 10 of each cut, 30 to assemble. Rumor has it they were locked up in a maintenance room at a prison, the seller said the boxes were dated 84. Who knows, it’s a good story so let’s go with it…

The handles are late 80s\90s vintage from a business that was making a widget, and using the handles on said widget, but since gone under and got dumped back onto the open market. In their many years of sitting, they picked up a rough texture but nothing that can’t be fixed.

After smoothing the handles and removing a bit of rust the handles got a fresh coat of walnut stain, then another sanding and a few coats on linseed oil, then another sanding and a coat of paste wax.

The files had a little rust here and there but for the most part, look quite good, they cleaned up easily and got a paste wax polish on the tangs. They will eventually get a light oil, but I haven’t gotten to that yet.

One thing I can’t stand is the sound of files rubbing on themselves so I stitched up a big pile of file sleeves with some 2″ texcel mil-spec 337 webbing. Assembly is just a couple of taps of a kick-nailer hammer and they seated nicely, well except the two I split…