Official Luthiers Forum!

I bought a generic diamond crowning file off of Amazon.com from a seller in Canada. It looks identical to the one you get from Stewmac except it doesn't say "Stewmac" on it. Figured it was from the same manufacturer. It looks like the same thing just not branded. It's the offset one. It comes in 150 grit and 300 grit and one side is narrow/medium and the other medium/wide. I got the 300 grit one.

Anyway, I bought it and tried it and I'm wondering if anyone here has ever bought this one or had any experience with it.

So far, it is taking some getting used to. It seems to make my marker line disappear before the fret is fully crowned. What I mean is, it leaves a fine dust behind and seems to blur my blue lines in a way that my toothed files don't. I just started getting really good at using the standard toothed files but was looking to step it up a notch. Has anyone here ever preferred these to the diamonds?

_________________
"I'm not going to say that perfection has never been achieved. However, if it has, it probably went unnoticed due to it's lack of character."

Yes, the file is crowned. It is rounding the fret tops. However, I can seem to track my progress much more easily with a standard file as of now. The diamond surface seems to blur the marker lines to the point where I either have to mark again or find the right angle with lighting to see what I'm doing. Make sense?

_________________
"I'm not going to say that perfection has never been achieved. However, if it has, it probably went unnoticed due to it's lack of character."

Yes. What I'm saying is that the blue tops become lighter and covered with a fine sanding dust from the filings. It starts to looks more grey-ish blue and I have a hard time seeing what I am doing at this point. The results I have been getting have been less consistent as well. With the standard files, it works very much like you described. Our techniques are pretty much the same from what I can see. The problem here is that after just a few strokes, I can't tell what I'm doing. Under good lighting, I can see that parts of the fret top are round and others still need work. The line is thin in places and fatter in others. This presents a problem because its hard to "spot crown" just one area. This is obviously a result of my technique but its hard to improve when I can't tell what I'm doing visually.

_________________
"I'm not going to say that perfection has never been achieved. However, if it has, it probably went unnoticed due to it's lack of character."

I had the same problem with that type of file, just couldn't get it to work to my liking.....so I sold them and still use my old "regular" file.

_________________
Gwaltney Guitars

No... It FADES the blue ink. What kind of a marker do you use? I just use a sharpie.

_________________
"I'm not going to say that perfection has never been achieved. However, if it has, it probably went unnoticed due to it's lack of character."

Yes black is easier to see. Try different lighting angles? Reading glasses?

_________________
Pat

Your files may need to just be broken in a bit. Just like a diamond stone, the files should wear very quickly during their initial use and then will settle in. It may be the the diamond particles are just too heavy inside the crown area and are just nicking the rest of the fret slightly fading the whole area. Once the inside of the file flattens out then the issue should get better. I also could be the all the shavings getting trapped under the file and are abrading away your marked fret. Especially when new you should get more shavings/diamond dust trapped underneath before get all the way across your fret to let it fall out. A regular file has grooves for the swarf to go into. If that makes any sense?

That actually does make sense. I was wondering if I got a bum file since it was not from Stewmac. Basically I was wondering if it was a cheap imitation. It is new and I could sense that some of the particles were either falling out or getting ground down during initial use. I have noticed that with some diamond sharpeners I bought in the past and always was curious if that was normal.

Thanks for clearing that up for me.

_________________
"I'm not going to say that perfection has never been achieved. However, if it has, it probably went unnoticed due to it's lack of character."