Sandblasting files

I ran across an interesting article on WK Fine Tools, here. It was about using sandblasting to sharpen files. The article was originally published in 1878. I decided to give it a shot. I grabbed a few old files that didn't cut so well and gave them the treatment. I took a few swipes with each one first and then after. I could feel a little bit of a difference in each, one was markedly better. I think I'll do this again some time with a more quantitative approach, and try to take the "feel" out of the equation.

Files before blasting. Old and ugly.

Files after blasting. You can see a few bits of steel in the file second from the bottom, I didn't brush it before the picture. For now, I think the blasting worked. Later on, I'm going to try something akin to the test from the article. By akin, I mean not taking 90,000 + strokes!