It may seem remedial to you, but when using a file it is important to put down pressure on it ONLY on the push stroke, and lift it slightly on the pull stroke. Otherwise the cutting edges will get turned and dull the file. Learned this in 8th grade shop, a program which is less prevalent these days, I’m told. I have been using the same StewMac nut files for 25 years and have done many hundreds of guitars and basses with them.
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