Cheap Nut Files

[Tod Gilding]

Hi everyone, I justy found these on ebay, very cheap and apparently good as nut files.
Postage to AU was quoted as GBP 1.50 and 5-6 weeks to arrive in AU.

http://cgi.ebay.com.au/ws/eBayISAPI.dll ... K:MEWNX:IT


Cheers Tod

[Nick]

Being tip files, just be careful with the smaller sizes Tod, they aren't hardened! Ordinary files are ( metal, nut e.t.c) and these will lack any 'longitudinal' strength so will bend really easily if too much pressure is applied or they 'hang up' in a slot. Even for their intended use of cleaning gas tips, it doesn't take long before they look more like a bunch of Queensland Bananas! Should be ok if you're careful with them though I would imagine, not sure what a local welding supplier would charge for them but that's not a bad price either.

[Tod Gilding]

Thanks Nick,I will be carefull, I thought for the price that I'd give them a go as I just can't afford a proper set at the moment,being new to this Looofery is expensive,getting myself set up as I would like could take time,so if these things do the job for a little while,all good.

Cheers Tod

[Kim]

I had used CIG tip cleaners years back when in a pinch and they will work, but as Nick suggests, once you get down to the "E" and "B" strings that are really quite useless because they flex, warp and kink like nobodies business. The thing is that you still need to precut all the slots to depth with a razor saw first to make the tip cleaners stay on track and if you are going to buy a razor saw, then the fact is that you can do a better job with a few saw blades that range in thickness like those little mini hacksaws and a normal hacksaw blade etc.

Once you have the basic slots cut so they are each just a little under size in depth and with, you can finish up with a range of old guitar strings using them to burnish out the slot so they are a perfect fit for the intended string. The "B" and "E" string slots can be tidied with a gentle waggle of the .012" razor saw that you had initial cut them with or better still, a bit of matching diameter 'braided' fishing line, the type used for deep sea this is a good option if you have a mate whose a keen fisho, but any thin cord that will do that has a surface that will hold a bit of course cutting compound to finish the cut as you floss it through.

All that said, ur best bet is to swallow hard and spring for the cash for a proper set. I believe that the two sided jobies sold by Girard Gilet are really good, from memory they are the original Ibanez files the design of which Stewi copied.

Cheers

Kim

[charangohabsburg]

Thanks for posting this link Tod, it was quite a bit fun reading the product description because the seller built in some "original" customer comments in German. In German a file is "Feile" while an Excel file, Word file or text file etc. is "Datei". His customers are really satisfied with his "Dateien".