Official Luthiers Forum!

Just got me one of these. Man, it works like a charm!
Quick and easy, hard to mess up crowning.

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Which one? The 150-300 grit or other?

Yup. Well worth it.

We use the 300, more than adequate. Then take a 2x1" piece of 800 grit between the fret and the file to polish the frets.

I got the 300 grit. It cuts quickly. I bet the 150 would cut too fast.
After levelling, I marked the fret tops with a sharpie.
It was easy to see progress as I filed.
I laid pieces of electrical tape on either side of the fret, but I don't think I slipped once using the file.
I'm thinking of buying their fret-end file next, the video is convincing.
Dan

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The diamond crowning file works great and is very fast, on frets that fit the tool's profile. It works best on new frets. There are a lot of fret sizes that, in my experience, it won't work well on. And it becomes less and less effective on dressed frets that have had a lot of leveling done. For these jobs, the medium triangle file shines. It is always a good day when I'm doing a fret dress and can use the diamond file! It is so fast, and crowing is the most tedious part of the work for me. I use the 300 grit file.

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It will probably be alright.

I have both grits.
LOVE THEM!!!!!

Greg has a valid point.
They're not for all size frets.

They have made my fret work so much easier.

Mike

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Mike Collins

I got the 300 and tend to agree with Maxwell's assessment. It's a great tool but not for every job. In my experience with the diamond file you still have to roll the file like you would with a triangle one. You cannot just let the files shape mold the shape of the fret.

It's a great file and I'm glad I got one. IT will probably last many many years too.

No way man - we don't need no stinkin, fancy store-bought tool. And old stick that fell off the north side of a Dogwood tree in March works just fine..... If you don't make your own tools, all of them.... you guys are just GLO (guitar like object) makers.....

Seriously we love em, have them all, have even worn some out after 100's of uses and would not use anything else (until something better comes along...).

Thanks Dan!

I have the Dual-grit. Any benefit to putting the Offset on my wish-list?

Yep the offset files work very well on the extensions over the body where a full length crowning file will likely hit the body in use.

Did a D-34.89763 this morning and used the long diamond files on all neck frets and the L-shaped smaller off-set files over the body. Piece of cake!

I also benefit from the 150 and 300 grit combo files. It's a lot easier to take some of the 150 grit scratches out with the 300 prior to sanding, etc. than going from 150 grit to sanding. I save my worn files too because a worn 300 is an excellent polisher prior to sanding.

FYI we get several hundred fret dresses out of a single diamond file. That's value and for us we likely will wear them out way faster than builders because builders need only do very minor recrowning if you put them in right to begin with. For repair work we at times are crowning something .017" high..... and as such have to do the entire crown profile and not just touch it up.

Surprised that someone has not come along and proclaimed Lutherie purity... saying that they use a three corner file. We do too when it's the right tool for the job. When it's not we completely enjoy these diamond crowning files.

Thanks, Hesh. Are the results comparable? My dual grit file works well, and if the results are comparable, I may keep that $120 in the vacuum fund.

Thanks for reccomending the file, Hesh!
Yeah, I did a rolling method as you suggested.
The tool is so easy to use that I can concentrate on what areas need filing.
I have a triangle file, but I have not mastered it's use.
Dan

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I got my pair way back. I don't even know if they make the shape anymore.

I feel like they are just getting broken in now.
It took quite a few hours of use before they settled down. I wonder if they still come this way.

If you just have the 300 that could make for some tired arms. Get the 150!

Hesh, if your using them down to .017", you must have ground them back some like me.
Getting through the chrome plating was a chore but now they are smooth and get down low.
Hopefully when I need new one's, I'll find they now make them that way.

And if the Stew Mac people can hear me, I would happily shell out for a skinnier size too. For old Mando and Banjo wire.

I love that file and use it as shown in the video.

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http://www.Harvestmoonguitars.com

Very cool Dan and we love ours too! Great tools are a real joy!

Yes the results are very comparable but with just a different reach available to us.

Yep all our tools usually get some kind of mod and safing these files is something that we've been doing for around a decade now. We also have the G*bson fretless wonders to deal with so we like our files capable of going very low when we need to. If a fret is too low for the SMDFs (Stew-Mac diamond files) we deploy the three corner and this often gets me thinking of the folks who came before us.

At the very least diamond files offer the advantage of working in both directions and that's a plus for commercial shops where time is money and so too is seemingly everything else....

Around 2008 I had some SM files that were a bit too aggressive and took a while to break in but they did break in. The files that we have purchased since did not have this issue.

I have thought about doing some selective grinding/filing on my StewMac diamond fret files so I would be able to more effectively roll the files back and forth while I'm crowning the frets. I haven't got around to it yet so would be interested to see what others have done. Anyone want to share?

I have these
http://www.stewmac.com/Luthier_Tools/Types_of_Tools/Files/Diamond_Fret_File.html

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Steve Smith
"Music is what feelings sound like"

Steve buddy we can show you ours in several weeks when you guys are here.

That will work although I'll be there in the spring. Not a big deal I figure it's a pretty common sense thing.

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Steve Smith
"Music is what feelings sound like"

It's straight forward Steve. But if yours are like my old ones, you have to get through what I'm guessing, is Nickel plating before you can shoe shine them up through the grits. The plating is HARD. I cant remember if I used a diamond stone or a bench grinder or both. Lowered, rounded, and polished up.
One other thing, before modding mine, it was easy to tell at a glance witch side was the tighter crown. Now not so much. Make sure you've' got a good marking on them if they are double sided. Bummer when you hit your nicely crowned skinny fret top with the big flat one late in the game. Just a heads up, Of course, this never happened to me.

EDIT: DON"T USE A DIAMOND STONE! Sorry, took me a few minutes to realize there was diamond grit up the sides of my file as it came. They would probably screw up an expensive stone. Bench grinder to nock off the diamonds and plating is the ticket.

Thanks David. Mine are double sided so I'll be sure to mark them first.

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Steve Smith
"Music is what feelings sound like"