An Do Steel File Industry

An Do commune (Binh Luc) has a population of over 8,000 and 2,700 households. The commune has the steel file production industry – a unique profession which no other villages in Vietnam have.

Currently, An Do has more than 200 households making steel files, concentrating in Dai Phu village. During 1960-1964 and 1976-1982, Dai Phu steel files had created faith in near and far customers. Dai Phu handicraft co-operative is equipped with teeth making machine, employing more than 200 workers producing over 400,000 products. An Do file steels exported to East European countries, Laos and Cambodia bringing in considerable foreign currency and pride for An Do. During those periods, An Do steel files registered the 17493 standard and were awarded the gold medal three times at the handicraft exhibition in 1980, 1981 and 1982.

Materials making file steels consist of two sources: special Russian steel bar Y12A and expired ball-bearings. Facilities to make file steels are quite simple including anvil, hammer, cast, chopping knife, smelting furnace, bellows, manual grinder (now replaced by electronic grinder), acid and base for bleaching. The industry has been oriented towards specialisation, following six basic phases: modelling, flattening, teeth making, tempering, inspecting and packaging.

In the first phase, materials are scrapped by the smelting furnace, model is made by the cast and then is ground flat (in the past flattening stage was manual which was labour and time consuming, but now is done by the grinder), followed by the teeth making stage. This stage is also manual because the teeth which are manually made are sharper then those made by machine. The last phase is to temper the hardness of the file. This is the production secret. Skilful workers temper the file by experience – watching the colour change to determine how to rightly temper it, not too soon or too late. Because if it is too soon, the file will have low quality; if it is too late, the file will break easily. Each household specialises in each production phase; hence, products are made with higher quality.

Types of steel files can include: triangle, semicircle, square, round, rectangular and flat steel files of the sizes ranging from 1 mm to 350 mm. Households also make fine-art steel files for wood sculpturing and engraving, and industrial gold and silver companies. To make steel files filling orders requires higher skills and more difficult tempering process, but in compensation, the income is higher, approximate VND 1 million/month.

In the past 50 years, An Do steel file industry has asserted itself and established reputation in the markets, increased the incomes for workers, and contributed to change the economy composition in the modernisation and industrialisation process in rural areas.

Recently, An Do sells approximately 500,000 products each month which are consumed mainly in Hanoi and southern provinces. An Do steel files are currently available in the market of ASEAN countries.

An Do steel file makers wish to sign export contracts themselves not just through non-regular border trading. They are concerned about the unstable material inputs and hope to find new stable material sources for production.

Source: hanam.gov.vn