File work is the additional flourish cut made into the spline of a knife. The knifemaker's aunt stopped her compulsive sweeping to look over the shoulder of the knifemaker's dad as he walked from station to station putting file work on a custom order.
First he used a Dremel cutting disk to make the initial slices into the spline. Once the base lines were made, the next step involved rounding both sides of each cut mark with a belt sander. See how the lines are expanded a bit, displaying the design.
Once the edges were rounded and blunted so as not to be sharp to the touch, the project went to the buffing machine. That is the machine the knifemaker's aunt has been warned to avoid. Remember the evil-eye post sometime earlier? The machine looks so innocent with a soft cotton disk and the soft crayon-type green stick of polishing compound that is rubbed on the edge when the machine is started. Who would believe this to be a dangerous machine?The results are amazing! Compare the buffed file work to the polished one above. It's a small detail, but wow!
