As a gentle reminder and one that can't be repeated to many times, a file only cuts one way, so pick it up on the return stroke, this applys to all files, triangular files for your hand saw, round files for your chain saw, flat files for your axe. It's also reasonable to use as much of the file on one stroke as possible. Start on one end of the blade pushing the file along the blade and ending up with the handle end of the file at the other end of the blade, with a skewing action of sorts. The idea is to use the whole file so it wears evenly. I hope I haven't mucked this up to baddly. Here is an other question on filing. Do others file into the blade or away from the blade? Tim