Bahco Saw files at Lee Valley

[Charles Bjorgen]

According to their web site Lee Valley is now handling a full line of Bahco saw files. Apparently the Grobet line is no longer sold by them although the catalog I received with a recent order still listed Grobets. I'm curious if anyone here has bought the Bahco files from LV and how they would rate them. I still have a small supply of Grobets and have not done any saw rehab lately so I will try to use up my supply of those first. Next time I place an order I'll try to sample a few of the Bahco brand.

[Patrick Chase]

According to their web site Lee Valley is now handling a full line of Bahco saw files. Apparently the Grobet line is no longer sold by them although the catalog I received with a recent order still listed Grobets. I'm curious if anyone here has bought the Bahco files from LV and how they would rate them. I still have a small supply of Grobets and have not done any saw rehab lately so I will try to use up my supply of those first. Next time I place an order I'll try to sample a few of the Bahco brand.

There have been a bunch of threads about this.

The Bahcos are very well regarded. I've bought a bunch from a UK supplier and from Amazon and have had very good experiences with them. I think they're at least on par with the Swiss-made Grobets, and better than the files I bought from Grobet USA (a.k.a. b2bprofessionaltools) a while back.

[Jeffrey Martel]

I just snapped a grobet file in 2 the first saw I used it on. Looked like a material defect to me. I was able to salvage it enough to finish the saw I was sharpening. Bahco is probably what I'll go with instead.

[george wilson]

Was the Grobet a needle file,Jeffrey?

[Patrick Chase]

Was the Grobet a needle file,Jeffrey?

This reminds me of the biggest limitation of the Bahcos: Lack of small files.

Bahco doesn't go any smaller than 4" X-slim, so you'll want to stock up on needle files if you have saws finer than ~14 tpm. Outlets that have switched to Bahco taper files (Blackburn, LV, etc) seem to be sticking with Glardon/Grobet cut-2 needle files. AFAIK those are still made in Switzerland, and don't seem to have been debased to the same degree as their taper files.

[Tom M King]

I just received a 3" file from The Best Things, that they had listed as a Nicholson made in Switzerland: http://www.thebestthings.com/newtools/nicholson_saw_files.htm : . It looks just like the 4" needle file from LV, only shorter. I haven't had the chance to use it on anything yet. I was using an 8 point handsaw a couple of days ago, and sharpened it five times in the course of what I was doing with it using a Simonds file. It did just fine, but after those five sharpenings (one stroke each tooth per sharpening-mostly), the file was still cutting but it was about done.

[Jeffrey Martel]

Was the Grobet a needle file,Jeffrey?

I'll double check when I get home, but I think it was a 6" XXSlim.

[David Bassett]

(Sorta' on topic...) I've been poking around used tool sites, (looking for a tuned up user rip handsaw,) and just noticed VintageSaws.com has changed from Grobet to Nicholson files. They say the non-Swiss Grobets have been a quality problem for them and they've been impressed with the quality of the Mexican Nicholsons they have received. That page is undated, but given complaints about Nicholson files from Mexico I assume this is a very recent change. Anyway Nicholson may have gotten their act together and is another possible source.

[Patrick Chase]

(Sorta' on topic...) I've been poking around used tool sites, (looking for a tuned up user rip handsaw,) and just noticed VintageSaws.com has changed from Grobet to Nicholson files. They say the non-Swiss Grobets have been a quality problem for them and they've been impressed with the quality of the Mexican Nicholsons they have received. That page is undated, but given complaints about Nicholson files from Mexico I assume this is a very recent change. Anyway Nicholson may have gotten their act together and is another possible source.

I've had similar experiences to Pete Taran (a.k.a. Vintage Saws) with Grobet USA.

The quality of the files (useful life, corner toothing, etc) has gone off a cliff, to the point where they don't even appear to have control of basic properties such as face height and TPI. The last straw for me was when they shipped me a dozen 6" "X-Slim" files that were closer to "Slim" in both face size and TPI. They weren't in spec for either 6-XS or 6-S per Grobet's own specifications, though. When I insisted on returning the files they "fired" me as a customer (though they did refund my money). IIRC Taran was similarly "fired" (though maybe that was Simonds).

[george wilson]

Any steel with a high carbon content will be brittle as glass unless the temper is drawn a bit. The file may have made it through the factory without being tempered. I had a Starrett dial caliper that measured .008" off. After I sent it back to be fixed,it was only .004" out!! Now,THAT I did not understand! It wasn't a Chinese Starrett,either. I expect that if it HAD been a Chinese Starrett it would not have had that problem. Why? Because Starrett pays the Chinese a decent price to make their overseas tools.