Gauged Nut Slotting Files

I got a set of these as a Christmas gift, from my luthier brother-in-law. As I play with dainty strings (mostly nines), I added the .010 file to the collection.

They work.

Are there better ones? Maybe...but I won't be looking for them.

They work. That's good enough for me.

I've made countless nuts with these files. Their flat sides can be useful if using spacers to determine your slot positions. For example, I have found it useful to slot a small nut-sized piece of wood and get the spacing perfect. Then clamp this piece with your bone blank in the vise. The wooden piece acts as a template for transferring the slot positions - similar to using an old nut, but more accurate! These files are perfect for this method.

I have two sets (one for steel strings, one for nylon strings). Use to use a gent saw and a pocket knife to make slots. These files do a wonderful job. Well worth the money.

Half of the files ordered are very dull, I have some very well used ones that do just as good of a job.

I needed some nut files to set up a couple of cheap ukuleles i own, with some advice from Pete Howlett a luthier, I purchased 2 nut files from Stewmac, they arrived quite promptly considering the distance they have travelled, i carried out the work and now the 2 ukes are set up perfectly for me, will i be buying from Stewmac again, YOU BET I WILL

I set up my guitars with many different tunings with different string gauges.
These do a wonderful job of help me set up each of my guitars for the specific gauge set!

Nothing to say... simply wonderful and a must have tool for nut filing!!!

Only complaint is I wish the .010 and .013 didn't wear out so fast but I guess that's to be expected since they are thin and I used them a fair amount. Works great!

These made achieving proper string height and slot width on the nut a breeze.

These produce a very nice rounded shape for the nut slot with parallel vertical sides. I found matching the file gauge with the string gauge made the strings a pretty tight fit so I rock the file from side to side slightly to open the slot out a bit.The parallel sides of the file mean that if you haven't cut the nut top pretty close to the final profile the file snags a bit.

Overall I prefer the shape of the slot produced with this file than the double sided version which I also use (but doesn't snag)which produces a V shaped slot.