The replaceable files

[toytoy]

Needless to say, at the Leatherman factory, workers use a punch die to cut parts from a piece of steel plate. I noticed some replaceable files have diamond files on the head while some others have them on the tail.

The differences may not be substantial.

[J-sews]

Ahhh! That explains some "backward" diamond files that Leatherman123 posted a picture of recently.

[Leatherman123]

YEAH!

[J-sews]

I saw this lot of new waves. It included two of them. But the diamond files are on the inside. Look at this pic from it.

[toytoy]

I think they must put all the blank files in a basket and randomly feed the blanks to the file making machines.

[trickknife]

Needless to say, at the Leatherman factory, workers use a punch die to cut parts from a piece of steel plate. I noticed some replaceable files have diamond files on the head while some others have them on the tail.

The differences may not be substantial.

Have you been to the factory?  I don't completely understand how this works?  Sorry, some of us (me) are slower than others.

[J-sews]

There is a 5-minute video tour of the Leatherman factory HERE. Unfortunately they don't talk about how files are made.


My thinking is that the files are stamped out of sheet steel.....then the teeth are cut into the metal while it is still soft......then the files are heat-treated for hardness.....then the diamond/nickel coating gets applied to one side of the diamond files.

(Just an educated guess mind you)

[trickknife]

I understand the basics about them being punched out of steel, but I didn't get the bit about "Head" vs "Tail"

[Spoonrobot]

I understand the basics about them being punched out of steel, but I didn't get the bit about "Head" vs "Tail"

It's like two sides of a coin. Heads in the side of the file that is towards the center of the tool, tails is the side that is facing the outside of the tool.

Some files have the diamond on the "heads" side, some on the "tails" side.