Hello everyone. Can someone suggest the best quality small diamond files for small scale stone inlay work? Anyone know of sintered diamond needle files rather than just plated? I’ve seen the machine sintered files at gesswein but have never seen sintered diamond needle files. I don’t mind paying for quality once.
I haven’t found them, and I’ve looked. My recommendation (as a gemstone carver, which I have lots of experience doing) is to use the plated ones for rough work and then make your own brass, copper or steel ones with diamond bort and oil. This is what I do; I’ve found the exacto knife blades are particularly good for doing this kind of work. You need to make/have duplicates as you will need one for every grit of diamond you use, you can’t clean them and use them with a finer grit as the diamond will embed in the metal. If it’s a softer stone like opal, even wood with diamond and oil works really well (like popsicle sticks). By the way, the cheap Chinese needle and riffler files seem to last just as long as the expensive ones. I usually buy two sets at a time to have some in backup.
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