This could have gone in any number of forums here on SMC.
If you have used a file on a soft metal like brass or aluminum, you have likely experienced the file clogging. Often a file card or wire brush will not clear these jammed in shavings from a file.
Here is an old trick seen in a magazine from the late 1970s to rescue files from such a fate.
This may be easiest by first starting to find a handle to hold a nail. A 16d nail works well. Mine measured as having a 5/32” shaft. A 9/64” hole was drilled into a piece of scrap to be used as a handle. The nail was driven in to depth so as to not split the wood.
Next, cut the head off of the nail below the gripper marks on the nail. When this is completed the end is smashed down as best as possible with a large hammer. File or grind a flat edge at the end of the nail. It doesn’t have to be perfect.
Now it is ready to be used to clean a file:
File Cleaner In Use.jpg
Push the flat edge over the file following the direction of the teeth. The teeth will cut grooves in the soft metal of the flattened end of the nail. As these are being cut points will form at the edge that will push against anything caked between the teeth of the file.
After a little use it will look like this:
File Cleaner Close Up.jpg
If this wears down over time it will be easy to make another.
jtk