from its hold; the only method is, by cauti- 
ously drawing it out, by means of a piece of 
silk tied round its head ; for if, by being too 
hasty, the animal should break, the part re- 
maining under the skin grows with surpris- 
ing vigour, and occasions an alarming, some- 
times a fatal inflammation. It is frequently. 
12 feet long, and not larger than a horse- 
hair. 
FILBERT, the fruit of the corylus, or 
hazel. See Corylus. 
FILES, manufactory of. Many useful tools 
have been invented for performing mecha- 
nical operations, which consist of a number 
of wedges or teeth, which may be con- 
ceived to stand upon, or rise out of a flat or 
curved metallic surface. When these teeth 
are formed upon the edge of a plate, the 
instrument is called a saw ; but when they 
are formed upon a broad surface, it consti- 
tutes what is known by the name of a file. 
The comb-makers and others use a tool of 
this description, called a quonet, having 
coarse single teeth, to the number of about 
seven or eight in an inch. Fine tools of the 
same kind, namely, with single teeth, are 
called floats. When the teeth are crossed, 
they are called files ; and when instead of 
the notches standing in a right line, a num- 
ber of single individual teeth are raised all 
over the surface, it is called a rasp. As the 
art of making files is nearly the same in its 
practice with regard to all the great variety 
of forms in which they are made, we shall 
confine our description to that of the flat 
file. 
Very little need be said in explanation of 
the method of forging these articles. They 
are usually made of steel, or more rarely of 
iron, case-hardened. The forged files arq 
brought to aflat surface on the grindstone, 
and are then ready for the file-cutter. This 
artist is provided with a great number of 
chissels, consisting each of a piece of steel 
of moderate thickness, having a straight edge, 
of greater length than the height of the 
chissel, the back of which terminates in a 
blunt angle or point in the middle of its 
length, upon which the blows are struck 
with a hammer of about five or six pounds 
weight, for middling sized files, having its 
head all on one side of the stem, so as to 
resemble the capital letter L, in order that 
it may by its own weight naturally dispose 
itself with the face downwards. The file is 
placed upon a plate of lead on a small low 
anvil, close to which the workman sits, and 
on the left side of the block of the anvil are 
fastened the two ends of a leather strap, 
which he brings over the file, and by putting 
his right foot into the loop, holds it steadily 
in its place. In this situation, taking the 
chissel between his left finger and thumb, 
he applies its edge across the file, where the 
cuts are to begin at the point, and gives it a 
blow ; the direction of the cut being in- 
clined towards the tang, or that end of the 
file, which is to go into the handle. Imme- 
diately after this commencing operation, he 
lifts the chissel, places its edge behind the 
other cut, and slides it forward till he feels 
it bear against the bur or protuberancy of 
the former cut, at which instant he gives 
the second blow ; a third is repeated in 
like manner, and by a continuance of the 
same proceeding, the whole surface at length 
becomes covered with single strokes or 
notches, each of which presents an elevated 
sharp edge. The distance between stroke 
and stroke, or which is the same thing, the 
coarseness of the file depends entirely upon 
the violence of the blow, by which the bur 
is raised to a greater or a less height ; but it 
is not difficult with so weighty a hammer, 
after a very little practice to give the strokes 
with great uniformity of impulse, and to 
repeat them with such frequency as to per- 
form this apparently delicate work with 
great speed and precision. The coarsest 
files have about ten or twelve cuts in the 
inch of length, and the very finest have up- 
wards of two hundred. - 
As soon as the whole surface of the file 
has been thus cut, the workman files the 
bur off with a smooth file, so as to leave very 
little more of the stroke than what has en- 
tered below the original surface ; and ther 
proceeds to give the second or cross-cut 
forming an angle of about sixty degrees, with 
the first range of strokes. The intention to 
be answered by filing off the first edges is 
to afford a more even surface for cutting the 
second, which is done exactly in the same 
manner as the first range, and likewise to 
give a suitable figure to the small teeth or 
lozenge-shaped prominence^, which stand 
up upon the face of the file after the cutting 
is completed. If this filing off were to be 
omitted, the teeth would be pointed and ir- 
regular ; whereas the useful and durable 
figure is that of a small rounded chissel or 
gouge. 
It may be remarked, upon examining a 
file, that the first cut is always made more 
slantwise than the second. If this were not 
done, the small teeth would all lie behind 
one another, in rows in the direction of the 
length of the file, which would make cor- 
