Alex Bealer Blacksmith Association

Rick,
Boy, that's a wide open question. Depends on where your interest lie.
Files- new ones are expensive. Scour flea markets/yard sales for used. Some can be refreshad w/ muritic acid. The biggest you can find will do for flattening surfaces. Half round is the most useful.You need a square and triangle. Rat tails and chain saw files are useful. Different sizes of each.
Punches- make your own as needed. I use coil spring(5160).
Ditto on chisels and drifts. There is no sense in making a box full of punches, flatters,butchers,drifts, cutters, and stamps you don't use.
Tongs- You can use visegrips until they won't hold what you have, then you make tongs to suit.
Add a notebook(three ring)to the box to note beginning size(length/cross section) so you can duplicate or lengthen(shorten) as needed.
Take digital pics. Eventually you will need a portfolio.
And don't forget the 20 Muleteam Borax for all the forge welding you are going to practice.

Yep Flea markets and yard sales, I bought a can of about 30 files, all different sizes for $10.00. They were clogged up pretty bad so I used a copper pipe to scrape the grooves out and learned to use a file card. Good handles and they work great. Make something to hang the files on, don't let them bang together in a drawer.

Tony...did you "file" on the copper pipe to get the crud out?

R. C. (Rick) Evans

Try this word picture:

I used the sharp edge on the end of the pipe to scrape parallel with the grooves of the file, (perpendicular to the length) allowing the copper pipe edge to develop corresponding grooves. The pipe grooves will get into the file grooves and really clean them out without damaging the grooves on the file. Any scrap of copper, brass, etc will probably work.

Got it?

Yep. I think so. Sort of a heavy duty filecard? Pictures, I need pictures!

R. C. (Rick) Evans