StewMac 3-Corner Fret Dressing File (Medium, 8" Length) - For Traditional Fret crowning and Shaping

I love that this is a finer file. If you have a little slip you can polish it out easily.Even though it has safe corners, I would still recommend taping up the fretboard while dressing frets. Would give more than five stars if possible!If you need to dress your frets this is a perfect tool

So basically my first time DIY job on 2 Les Paul style guitars, Rockwood Hohner and an Epiphone Les Paul Custom Pro (Ebony) ( work is still in progress) eventually I reached the point where Crowning the leveled frets was next. I had a Nicholson 3 corner file but using it was not easy to get the Thin line on the Leveled fret top, so after seeing video promotion by StewMac, i purchased this 3 corner 8" medium file.I like this 3 Corner File which is much better to use than the Nicholson due to its sleek profile and It also has smooth edges so it did not dig into the fret board. My frets are not the tall type and using this file rounding over flattened frets was much faster than the Nicholson file. File can also be used on the fret ends if need be, However I did purchase StewMac`s Fret End Dressing File which is also an excellent file for the purpose.I saw another video by StewMac promoting their Original Z-Fret File. I liked what I saw and knew this Z-File was exactly what I wanted so I also purchased this file ($104) - the quality of both files from StewMac are outstanding and in my opinion paying for Quality is worth it - I will be doing a review on the Z-file also.There are times when going a bit cheap may be the way to go, but in this case Peace of mind and having confidence is golden as far as I am concern - StewMac`s 3 corner fret file 8 medium with its rounded edges is an excellent file compared to the Nicholson as far as working on frets.StewMac Videos worked on me and I have no regrets that they did as I am very satisfied with the 3 purchases - Fret End Dressing File, 3 Corner 8' Medium Fret File and their Original Z- Fret Crowning File.

I don’t often leave reviews but felt this was warranted. Awesome file. Got nice exact crowns and the weight and feel in the hand is natural. Cuts quick so let the file do the work. I ordered the smaller one directly from stewmac since I liked this one so much

I'm usually a cheap skate and try to get by with DIY solutions if I'm able. If not I'm shopping for a cheaper alternative to whatever the industry standard is. Prior to buying this I tried a Harbor Freight 3 corner file, but lacked the tools to smooth the edges. Of course it ate everything the corners touched.I then found a cheap safety edged 3 corner file on eBay for about $15 and got that. It was decent, but small and whet my appetite for what the right tool could do.Then for Father's Day I was able to purchase a couple of things. I got the medium 3 corner file and the Stewmac 6" fret leveling file. They both work amazingly well, and the 3 corner file is hands down my favorite.First, the size of the medium is perfect for crowning and even dressing the ends of the frets, although it can't get down to the very bottom of the fret for those nice, perfectly rounded ends (I will buy a Stewmac dressing file in the future for this), but for now, it works great.Also, the file goes all the way to the tip, so there's more real estate to work with. Each swipe gets more material than my previous cheaper file, which was smooth on the end 1/2".Finally it eats off enough material to work quickly, but not enough to leave deep grooves in the sides of the frets.I got this to practice my fret crowning and eventually work on leveling and crowning a few of my guitars. I used a junk neck I had and leveled, crowned and dressed the frets 4 or 5 times (the frets are nubs now). This file has quickly become easy to work with.A couple of suggestions for those new to using a 3 corner to crown:- Use a finger in the off hand to serve as a guard-rail for the file. This helps keep things nice and straight. The file isn't sharp enough to hurt while you do this.- Don't push too hard, let the file do the work. I tried to apply a little too much pressure more than once and scratched the top of the fret as I inadvertently pushed the file across the fret (glad it was on a junk neck!!)Overall I'm very happy with my purchase and plan on keeping this in my toolkit for a long time (I'm sure it will last!)

Top-notch. Good quality.

The file has a nice weight to it. This is the first tool I've bought from stew mac. Compared to other fret files I can easily say this is superior. Well worth the price in my opinion, as any work done to the fret board requires precise and quality tools. It's easy to use, technically, however the process takes practice so 4 stars there. But I'm quite satisfied with this file.

A bit pricey but it gets the job done and done well.

I choked at the price. But there isn’t another tool like it out there. A must have for diy guitar builders.