The Process Of Making Hand Cut Files - Constructing The Antikythera Mechanism

Antikythera Fragment #3 - Ancient Tool Technology - Hand Cut Precision Files

There are quite a few very interesting tools still to come in this Fragment series, but I have to admit I've been super excited about these: A set of hand cut files suitable for constructing the #Antikythera Mechanism. Please enjoy :)

The other video where I case harden the files can be found here: https://youtu.be/V_Mp1fNzIT8

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Abbreviated Transcript:

00:40 The Greek civilisation was well into the Iron Age at the time of the devices creation. But the question of steel availability is not easily answered. Certainly there was a form of crucible steel known as Wootz, from the region we now call India. But there was also the technique known as case hardening, which essentially converts the surface of an iron object into steel.
01:23 The first step is to take this raw stock, and shape the basic file blanks. In recent history, this job was done on a massive grinding wheel. And although it would of course have been much slower and less convenient, similar hand powered abrasive tools are known to have existed in antiquity.
02:46 No matter how much I roll the file on top of the work, it rotates so that the file will still cut reasonably flat. Ok, so with the file surfaces stripped, the next step is to form the teeth. And I need to make a few more custom tools to get this part of the job done. I've made a simple file cutting workstation, based on the traditional approach, but scaled down to suit the size of my shop.
06:15 And that first tooth now becomes the reference for the next tooth. The chisel blade is slid up against it, and then the subsequent teeth are laid down one after another. Each time, using the previous cut to locate the next.
08:59 Well I'm not about to give up my commercially made files any time soon. But they do work quite well. They're probably equivalent to a modern #2 cut file, and although the cutting action is not quite as sweet as a new, modern file, its a reasonable balance between metal removal and surface finish. They're durable, easy to handle, and certainly perform well enough to have constructed the original mechanism.
10:31 But there's still quite a high degree of consistency of the root angles around each given wheel. That suggests to me that the teeth were in fact formed by simply plunging the file into the workpiece, like I've done here. And that the root angle variation observed across the gearing, was in fact generated by a small selection of files cut specifically to construct this mechanism. Ok, so to wrap this one up, Its still very early days for this reconstruction. And I've still got a lot more research to do into the tool technology behind this machine.

References:

The Nicholson Guide to Files & Filing: http://www.nicholsontool.com/MagentoShare/media/documents/nicholson-guide-to-filing-2014.pdf

The late Ken Hawley on the Sheffield file cutting tradition: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FB58hkncznI

A modern French toolmaking company, producing magnificent hand cut files and rasps: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gvr2nZeAfNc

Another beautiful video on rasp making: https://youtu.be/gQ09O3d8y9Q?t=3m22s

A look at traditional filecutting. A blend of both the modern filecutting machine as well as traditional hand cut files (German, no English CC's): https://youtu.be/koZkKDAg3Zs?t=18m10s

Antikythera Fragment #3 - Ancient Tool Technology - Hand Cut Precision Files