MAKING FILES in SHEFFIELD, EARLY 1840s

Excerpts from "A Day at the Fitzalan Steel and File-Works, 
Sheffield," The Penny Magazine Supplement, Volume XIII, March 
1844, pages 121-128. 

  "... we have been favored with access to the Fitzalan Steel-
Works of Messrs. Marriott and Atkinson, which besides exhibiting 
the various processes of steel-making... file manufacture (one of 
the most important in which steel is employed) is there conducted 
on a large scale. 

  "These works are situated at Attercliffe, an eastern suburb of 
Sheffield... Sheffield is in a hollow, nearly surrounded by 
hills; and several small rivers flow between these hills into the 
hollow, thus affording moving power for a large number of water-
wheels. Attercliffe is situated at a part of the district where 
all these streams have become one, and where also a canal opens a 
communication between Sheffield and the port of Hull, so there is 
both motive-power and transit-power at command. 

  "The Fitzalan Works occupy a quadrangular space surrounded by 
buildings on the north bank of the Sheffield Canal. When within 
the entrance-gates we find a quadrangle having a large tank or 
reservoir near the centre, and around it are the various 
workshops for conducting the manufacturing processes. On the 
right hand are the 'converting' furnaces, where the iron is first 
made to assume the form of steel; opposite are the 'tilting' and 
'shearing' houses, the 'rolling-mill,' the 'casting-house,' the 
'engine-house,' and other buildings pertaining more or less to 
the manufacture; on the left are the 'file-forges,' where pieces 
of steel are brought into the rough form for files; while on the 
north or entrance side of the quadrangle are ranges of shops in 
which these pieces go through the numerous stages of progress 
incidental to the production of a file. Southward of the group of 
buildings is a wharf on the banks of the canal, where barges 
bring the iron from Hull and other places, and whence the 
finished goods are dispatched by similar conveyance. On the 
opposite banks of the canal are little patches of garden-ground, 
held by the proprietors of the Works, and let out to their 
workmen on the allotment system..." 


  "We must now transfer our attention to that portion of the 
works which is appropriated to the File-manufacture. 

  "These tools, simple and unimportant as they may seem... to 
those who never enter an artisan's workshop, are among the most 
note-worthy articles made of steel. They are the working-tools by 
which every other kind of working-tool is in some degree 
fashioned. Whether a man is making a watch or a steam-engine, a 
knife or a plough, a pin or a coach, he would be brought to a 
stand if he had not files at his command. It may be a file with a 
hundred serrations to an inch, or with six or eight; it may have 
straight cuts like most files, or angular holes like a rasp; it 
may be two inches long, or a yard long; it may be round, or half-
round, or triangular, or square, or flat; blunt or pointed, 
straight or curved; but a file of some sort or other will be 
found in almost every workshop. 

  "The first place to which we have to follow the file-makers is 
the forge... There is on one side a forge-fire, with a hearth on 
which to place the fuel, and bellows placed behind, much in the 
same way as a common smith's forge, but with more attention to 
neatness and order. The workman's bench... is a large block of 
hard stone, weighing about three tons... On this are fixed one or 
more anvils... There are also hammers of various sizes and 
peculiar shapes, and other small implements necessary to the 
operation... 

  "Except for the smallest files, there are two men employed at 
each forge -- a striker and a forger, one of whom manages the 
fire, heats the steel, and acts as a general assistant; while the 
other is the superior workman, who hammers the file into shape, 
and is responsible for its quality. There are various notches, 
ridges, curvatures, and gauges, on and about his small steel 
anvils, which enable him to work the piece of steel into the 
proper form for a file, including the narrow handle, or 'tang.' 
The rate of working is such, that at the whole of the sixteen 
'hearths,' about fifty thousand dozens of files are made in a 
year. Each man accustoms himself to the making of one particular 
size of file... From the thickness and softness of the heated 
metal, there is very little rebound to the hammer, and this 
renders the work of the striker rather laborious, especially for 
large files, where a hammer of nearly twenty pounds weight is 
used. 

  "The files are then annealed or 'lighted,' in order to bring 
the steel to a state of softness fitted for the cutting of 
teeth... Next succeeds the process of grinding, where the... 
'blanks' are ground down to a true and regular surface, whether 
that be flat or curved... 

  "Then ensues the very important and curious operation of 
cutting the files, one which has hitherto defied the powers of 
machinery... In one of the buildings of the works is a long room 
in which file-cutters are ranged around the sides in front of the 
windows... each one having a small bench before him with a simple 
apparatus for fastening down the file while being cut... 

  "The file being slightly strapped down, the cutter takes a 
sharp tool or chisel in the left hand and a hammer in the right. 
This tool is a very hard, sharp, and tough piece of steel, having 
an edged fitted to produce the required kind of tooth, and a head 
to receive the blow of the hammer. 

  "The hammers employed (the heaviest of which weigh about nine 
pounds each) have the handles placed... at such an angle that the 
cutter can, while making the blow, pull the hammer in some degree 
towards him, and thus give a peculiarity to the shape of the 
tooth. If the file is a flat one... the cutter places the small 
steel tool on it at a particular angle, and with one hammer blow 
cuts an indentation. He then, by a minute and almost 
imperceptible movement, changes the place of the tool, and makes 
another cut parallel to, and a short distance from, the first; 
then a third, a fourth, and so on to the end of the file, 
shifting the file slightly in its fastening as he proceeds. 
Generally the file is cut doubly, one set of cuts crossing the 
other at an angle... In this case he reverses the position in 
which he holds the cutting tool, and proceeds as before. If the 
file be round or half-round, or have a curved surface of any 
kind, he still uses a straight-edged cutting tool; but as this 
can only make a short indentation, he has to go round the file by 
degrees, making several rows or ranges of cuts contiguous one to 
another. 

  "Such is the art of file-cutting; and it contains many points 
worthy of remark. First, the angle at which the cuts are made 
depends greatly on the purpose to which the file is to be 
applied... Next, the cut is not a mere indentation... it is a 
triangular groove of particular shape... The strict parallelism 
of the several cuts can only be brought about by practised 
accuracy of hand and eye, since there is no guide, gauge, or 
other contrivance for regulating the distance... As an instance 
of what skill and long practice can effect in this respect, we 
have before us a file about ten inches long... The flat side is 
cut with a hundred and twenty teeth to the inch, so that there 
are about twelve hundred teeth on that side; the round side has 
such an extent of curvature, that it required eighteen rows of 
cuts to compass it; each little cut on this side is not much 
above a twentieth of an inch in length; and the number is thus so 
great, that for the whole file there are twenty-two thousand 
cuts, each made with a separate blow of the hammer, and the 
cutting tool being shifted after each blow! ...the whole of the 
files made at Sheffield (the headquarters of the trade) are cut 
by hand... 

  "When the files are cut, they are brought into the warehouse to 
be stamped with the corporate mark of the firm. They are next 
hardened... the proper working of the file depends a good deal on 
the manner in which it is done... and while yet warm is 
straightened by a small apparatus at hand... 

  "The files are then scrubbed clean by women with sand and 
water; and lastly pass into the hands of the foreman, who tests 
every file singly in a way which brings both the hearing and the 
touch into exercise... A firm which has once acquired a 
reputation for good files is extremely solicitous not to damage 
it by the sale of even one that is defective." 



NOTE: THE FULL ARTICLE IS ABOUT 7 TIMES THIS LONG; THE FILE PART 
IS MORE THAN TWICE AS LONG. 

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