SIDK AKMS AND CUTLERY. 1/ '.> 



requisite assorted instruinent steel aiul make chisels and f»thiT tools thereof at tlir 

 works themselves. 



The cutting of tiles, as of implements very much required in the working ot 

 metals, is very often done at the metal working establishments themselves, but as 

 the quality of these instruments, especially with regard to the straigthness of the body, 

 is far from being satisfactory, even the most distant manufactories, as those of tlu' 

 Urals, for instance, have to bring them from abroad, chiefly from England. The 

 home production of files, as an independent branch of industry, dates only from the 

 tifties, when because of the Crimean war import was very difficult. The peasants ol 

 the Pavlovo region were first to introduce this kind of goods, and the industry hns 

 continued active there until the present day, developing little by little but not with 

 the rapidity that could be expected, owing to the scarcity and expensiveness of tin- 

 steel required in the manufacture. However, of late years, the making of instru- 

 ment steel has greatly increased at some of the Ural works; the Putilov.sk 

 manufactory at St. Petersburg has also begun to produce it, and probably other fac- 

 tories will follow; therefore there is every reason to expect that the manufacture of 

 first class files will in due course be firmly established in the Empire. 



The Izhora manufactories at Kolpiuo, belonging to the Admiralty, using since 

 1888 files made by peasants (koustars), coarse cut as well as fine, of the average 

 length of six to twenty inches, have been able to compare their respective qualities 

 with those of the files made in England. The data given on the manufacture of files 

 at that factory show that tliis branch of industry cannot as yet be regarded as firmly 

 established, in as much as the files are not always straight nor uniformly tempered, 

 so that there is great loss in the manufacture; however, for the past few years the 

 industry has shown great progress and improvements have also been made in the 

 tempering, shaping and cutting pi-ocesses. Tlie comparative tests made of the files of 

 two Sheffield firms and of the Eussian files of the same length, 18 inches, and of 

 the equally coarse cut, proved that for the filing of cast iron the Eussian files were 

 as good as the English, but for the filing of iron they are inferior. The test con- 

 sisted in weighing the file dust taken from the metal by the same man during three 

 and three-quarter hours. The chemical composition as seen by the analysis made 

 shows no great difference. The price of the Eussian files of the length of 10 to 12 

 inches is lower, and that of files of greater length, higher than that of the 

 English, duty and carriage paid. 



Beyond the Pavlovo region the cutting of files has been established in the 

 centres of machine building and of general mechanical industry, as, for example, in 

 St. Petersburg, Moscow, Odessa and some other towns, and also in Tula. Although 

 these establishments are mostly engaged in re-cutting old files, still they generally 

 produce new ones as well. 



Beckoning the above mentioned quantity of files made at the Zlatoust manu- 

 factory, the general value of the production can be fixed at about 250,000 roubles, 

 including the manufacture of files by the factories and establishments for their own use, 

 as is the case, for instance, at the Kolomensk factory in the Moscow government, and 

 in some others, as well as the re-cutting of old files. This amount is quite insufficient 

 for Eussia. The nuts used for cutting the screw is chiefly made by the peasants of 

 the Pavlovo region, but generally in no great variety, nor in great quantities; there- 



