Parwin, thank you for your question.I don't use old files for my razor because i respect the people like you (and so the people of this forum) and i prefer to use new,really new iron for my straight razor that i would like to sell (i don't sell razor now,not yet) .I use ancient files only for razor that i can use for tests, but when i will sell my razor i would like that people have a very good and really new razor.
All of this only for a thing, a respect about people.
I remeber another legend about the use of ancient files.I like read books, also in original language and i remember the story of moby dick:
egarding the literature, an example regarding the subject matter of this thread can be found in the passage from the book Moby Dick (published in 1851).
It is stated that the harpoon has been forged with the use of all free-hand razor belonging to the men of the crew and brought with horseshoes on a ship for Captain Ahab scaramanzia.L 'author of the novel, Melville, wanted so 'to emphasize that the captain of the whale catch was more important' than anything else in the world.
I also think that Ahab intends to use the horseshoe shape for the harpoon to have more luck in capturing the whale.
In a sort of alchemy of old people, in forging a blade from an old file, it seems that they also transfer the 'soul' of the object lived in a new, as in a sort of reincarnation.
There were many knifemakers in Sheffield that were also files-smiths:
Samuel and George Bates, Spring-street
Thomas Blake, Green-lane
John Brammall, Westbar-green
Benjamin Cadman, Lambert Croft
James Cam, Norfolk-street
John Corker, Furnace-hill
James Creswick, Ponds
John Crooks, Colston Croft
William Cutler & Sons, Fargate
Daniel Doncaster, Copper-street
Widow Ellis and Sons
Jonathan France, Blind Lane
Samuel Genn, Smithfield
George Greaves, Westbar-green
Francis Hawke & Son, Allen Lane
Joseph Hawksley, Castle-fold
Joshua Hawksley, Westbar
Nicholas Jackson, Wicker
John Jessop, Smithfield
John Kenyon, Holles Croft
Joseph Law, Gibralter
William Lindley, Fargate
Joseph Peace, Scotland-street
George Pearce, Pea Croft
Henry Smith, Scotland-street
Matthias Spencer, Scotland-street
Matthias Spencer, Pea Croft
Enoch and James Trickett, Coalpit-lane
Nicholas Turner, Lambert Croft
Samuel White, Bailey Field