Hi, my name is Dale and welcome back to Metal Tips and Tricks. I want to talk about sharpening files. First of all, let's get rid of one of the myths that steel, sharpen steel, a lot of people think if you take all your files, put them in a drawer and as you open the drawer in and out the files will rub together and sharpen themselves. It doesn't work that way guys. Even though I know a lot of you are doing that, raise your hand, it doesn't work. So I want to tell you about the way that I learned. I was at a garage sale a few years back and the gentleman there was a machinist back in the 50s and 60s and he specialized, actually he was an electrical engineer but back in the day you may have been an electrical engineer but you also had to go out on the floor when there wasn't a machinist at 2 o'clock in the morning and build some of the stuff you were designing and his specialty was relay switches and he also got to work on the original rocket sled which is one of those great ways of testing things under great forces and that's what the rocket sled was for. He told me that you know at 2 o'clock in the morning you'd design something, well there wasn't a machinist out on the floor to build it for you so you would have to actually go out there and do it yourself. So I sat before I know it, I had pulled up a bucket, sat down and was listening to his stories for hours and one of the things he taught me was how to sharpen files and that's what I want to talk to you guys about today is sharpening files. First we're going to need some sulfuric acid. I found it in a drain opener kind of scary that you'd pour that down your drain to clean it out. First couple of containers, long enough to hold the files, baking soda to neutralize the acid some safety equipment like a face shield and rubber gloves. 2x4 I'll explain that a little bit later. File card or wire brush, copper tube modified with a wood handle and of course two files to sharpen. Before we sharpen this file let's see how dull it actually is. Yeah it doesn't seem to be working very well. So remember that 2x4? Well if you look closely there's a little raised edge on it and that's going to be used to help hold the file in place when I'm cleaning it. And here's the trick I really like this copper tube it's flattened on one end with a wood handle on the opposite and this is used to clean the file. The copper will not dull the file which I know is already dull but it won't make it any worse. Time to mix up some chemistry. Putting on my rubber gloves you can see I have long sleeve shirt on and the full face shield. We're going to make a saturated solution with the baking soda and what that means is it's going to be a little bit milky when it's all mixed up so don't be shy with this stuff. Next we're going to mix up the sulfuric acid. It's going to be a 10 to 1 ratio so it's 10 parts of water to one part sulfuric acid. Now you always want to add acid to water. If you do it the other way around you may find out why you have a full face shield. So now bin over an hour we're going to pull the file out and we're going to put it in the baking soda to neutralize the acid. Watch it bubble this is really cool. Shall we see how well the file works now? Excellent it cuts clean through the entire stroke just like a sharp file is supposed to. If you guys like this video give me some thumbs up also leave your comments but if you really really like it go to my youtube channel and click on the support button. Alright guys until next time go out and shop build something cool. Thanks.