Product Review – Basic Grey Precision File Set

August 26, 2009 by Francine Clouden

Today I am beginning a new bi-weekly series: Product Reviews. I will be reviewing products that I currently own and have been using in my personal projects, not ones solicited from manufacturers, so my reviews will be based on my crafting experience of the last few years.

From the manufacturer: Explore the “sharper” side of scrapbooking with the Basic Grey Precision File Set. All of those tiny ruts and spaces are finally within reach. Perfect for smoothing or distressing chipboard, plastic, paper, metal.. all with “sharpening” results. Each file in the Basic Grey Precision File Set features a rubber-coated grip for comfort and ease-of-use.

I confess that I not only love tools and gadgets, I also love to add distressing to my projects. So buying this set was a no brainer for me! I found the set easy to use, and it lives up to its promises. With two large flat files, and four smaller precision files, I found that I was able to get into even the tiniest spaces between my chipboard letters and shapes. The flat files are perfect for sanding the bigger areas, like the edge of cardstock, chipboard and patterned paper. I’ve used the larger files on Core’Dinations cardstock with a great result!

A few examples:

After covering this chipboard album with patterned paper, I was able to get a nice even finish on the edge with the flat file.

Other uses for the files include

Distressing the edges of photos
Filing off the little “nubbies” that stay when you press a shape out of a die cut sheet
Filing away painting “oops” on the edges of items

The files are easy to hold and use, and more comfortable than using a piece of sandpaper. They are very effective, it just takes a couple swipes to get a smooth finished edge. And the sound it makes while filing is less grating than sandpaper. I highly recommend this set!

Read These Next

Have you read?

Stitch a Scarf with Dreamy Waves

As I write this, it’s probably time to start thinking about winter knitting if you haven’t already. And it’s definitely time to think about gift knitting if you have any of that you plan to do for the holidays.

The Dreamy Waves Scarf from Knit Picks, designed by Stacey Winklepleck, would be a great project to go in either category.

It uses two different multicolored yarns and a simple repeating wave pattern to make a project that looks a lot more complicated and dramatic than it is. The gradient look happens naturally just by switching which yarn you’re knitting with.

This pattern uses worsted weight yarn so it’s a pretty quick project even though a scarf is large and this one is pretty wide. It measures 8.5 inches (21.5 cm) wide and 63 inches or 120 cm long. Of course you can make it longer or shorter as you like. As written it takes one ball of each color so it’s a pretty economical project, too.

It’s rated for intermediate knitters but if you know how to do various increases and decreases you’ll be all set. The pattern uses knit 2 together, make 1 left and right, centered double decrease and slip slip knit. All of the stitches are explained in a glossary in the pattern so even if you haven’t done all of them it shouldn’t be too hard to figure out.

The pattern also includes tons of options for different colorways in yarn that Knit Picks sells, so you can see how different combinations knit up before you buy the yarn. That’s such a great idea!

Of course if you already have two multicolored yarns with long color runs on hand, you can absolutely use them, too. It might also be fun, but would give you a totally different look, to use a solid color and a bunch of scraps or one multicolored yarn to see how the different colors play together. So many options!

You can grab this free pattern and check out all the color options at Knit Picks.

[Photo: Knit Picks]

Summer Shawl and Scarf Knitting Patterns

Take It Easy with the Bessie Scarf

Sweater Scarf Knitting Patterns