18th Century Metal Files.

The file and whetstone I carry in my knapsack.

In the early 18th century all metal files were fashioned by hand by a file cutter. Blank files were made by the blacksmith & then sold to the file cutter.

A 16th century German file cutter (Taylor, 1920, 30)

Filecutting hammer, chisel for a file (right) and a rasp punch (left) (H.C.)

Selection of file cutter’s hammers.

https://www.dhi.ac.uk/matshef/unwin/MSfilecutter.htm;

More on file making Here: https://www.dhi.ac.uk/matshef/unwin/MSfilecutter.htm;