I had come across this on a website when doing a search for it as well.
Dunno how accurate it is or anything. He didn't say where his testing was done, but he shows an image of the file piece on the site.
Quote:
Nicholson File
1.23%C .37%Mn .21%Si .16%Cr .09%Ni .04%Mo
(extra low P & S and very low W, Ti, Al, B, Cu)
Here all this time I figured it was plain ol' 1095, turns out to be
a steel that's referred to quite a bit in most metallurgy books but
is not named, numbered or listed by AISI or SAE, only referred to as
"1.22% carbon steel". Taps, dies and reamers are also made of it.
So, a using-knife made from old files will be in good company. wink.gif
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http://www.panix.com/~alvinj/testsamples.htm
Had posted this in a file discussion over on Fogg's site.