'Muratic acid' = hydrochloric acid, which shoule be available at any Lowe's, Home Depot, etc. I suspect that household bleach [weak hydrochloric acid] isn't strong enough to clean files like this, but then again, maybe it would be just right for toolmakers' filesfwhere you have small, shallow teeth vs. big mill and flat files??   I would think that after cleaning those files with any sort of hydrochloric acid that they would be HIGHLY prone to rusting, maybe by just looking at them? YMMV.

  – Don

     Should be added to the 'basic tool list' – an up-to-date tetnus shot. The thought came to me today as I scraped a steel splinter from my hand. Yeah, I seem to have enough surgeries, etc. that I've ALWAYS got a current tetnus booster in me… :) 

     Back in prehistoric times, I worked for a major manufacturer of large appliances – end mill maching, semi-automated wire welders, circle shears, draw and punch presses. I collected enough scrap steel in me to set off metal detectors… [not really - just seemed that way ] . I had steel slivers working their way to the surface for several years after leaving there.  

      BTW, the preferred method of the industrial nurses there to remove said steel splinters was usually not tweezers, [imagine a large, clumsey mammoth attempting to use tweezers... LMAO :)],  but rather to use a scalpel to scrape across it. Usually that would draw it out.  Since this was way back before the invention of ether, malpractice insurance, or even lawyers, don't know if it is still the preferred practice.

             – Don    " politically incorrect since 1947"

Another addition to the 'basic tool list' – a vacuum cleaner for cleaning up machinery, swarf, etc… Doesn't have to be an actual 'shop vac' -  Wnehever SWMBO gets a new one, I rotate the old one to the shop… A couple of Grandpa's lessons were, 'always clean up after working in the shop,' and 'always wipe down any hand tools you use before putting them away, and always put them away when you are done for the day.'  As "Machinistschest" said, 'have a place for everything, and everything in its place.' That way you never A. lose a tool, B. hwaste time locating it, and C. Always begin with a clean tool.  This also revolves in the 'Pride' factor he mentioned as well. Another Pro here cautioned against using compressed air to clean up machinery, embedding chips in ground surfaces, ways, etc. Can't recall who it was right now… but as always, the Pros are right…

     Sometimes it seems like my most used 'shop tool' is that vacuum cleaner. :)  And I will clean up the debris several times during a shop session rather than have a big mess at the end.  Besides, a clean, relatively neat shop is safer, especially for half-blind Mammoths… :)

     – Don     'Only a fool will abuse a tool'  [ or a young Mammoth :) ]