A file is a hand tool used to remove portions from the surface of various different woods, metals or plastics. It’s generally a steel tool constructed from one piece, with a series of fine, sharpened teeth across the surface of one end and a pointed tang on the other.
Files come in a wide variety of different shapes (for example pillar, square, half round, taper, round, etc.). For this reason, and to make the sets I have included below more valuable in regards to how many different applications they can be used for, each set I have listed has at least two different file shapes represented.
There are two different kinds of file patterns: American and Swiss. For the purposes of keeping things simple for this list, all the different file sets below consist of American pattern files. This is because American pattern files consist of fewer grades of cut (how fine the teeth are) than Swiss pattern files.
While I’m on the subject of cuts, each set I have listed in best file sets in 2022 is comprised of one, but no more than two, different varieties of cuts on the files to ensure uniformity in the jobs you work on. This is so that you don’t have to work on materials with multiple different kinds of cuts, which could result in strange final surface textures on whatever you’re working on.