Simonds SIM73499500 Smooth Knife File 4" American

The Simonds SIM73499500 is a smooth knife file, American pattern, 4 inches.

Reading this against the 4 inch bastard knife file alongside it shows why both exist, and it is the whole logic of file grades compressed into one shape.

A knife file works in an acute corner — a dovetail, a V-groove, an undercut — where nothing else can reach. Getting there is one job; finishing there is another.

A bastard knife file opens the corner and removes material. It leaves a rough surface, and in a dovetail that surface is a bearing face: a gib, a slide, or a mating part has to move against it. Rough will not do. But nothing else can get in to fix it, because a flat file's thickness fouls the wall.

So the smooth knife file is the only tool that can finish the surface it is standing on. That is a genuinely narrow capability and it is why toolmakers own both.

Smooth is the finest of the American pattern grades — bastard, second cut, smooth — and it removes very little. Using it to open a corner is an afternoon's work.

The sharp edge that makes the file useful also makes it fragile. Knife files snap.

Fit a handle.

Brand

Simonds

SKU

SIM73499500

Category

Hand Tools

Weight

0.04 lbs

Dimensions

8.00 x 0.75 x 0.20

Price

$39.95

Availability

In stock

Rating

4.25 / 5.0