Round File with Handle

A round file is for the work the flat and half-round files can't reach: small holes, narrow recesses, the inside of cable ports, the smallest cavities where material needs to come off. The 763HB-US round file is 200 mm long with a 7.5 mm working diameter, sized for the small-feature work a bike shop typically does.

The bastard cut tooth pattern is middle-aggressive. Coarser than smooth, finer than rough. The teeth wrap the full circumference of the working body, so the file cuts on every contact angle regardless of how the file is rotated against the work.

Where the round file does the work

• Opening up a cable port that's slightly undersized. Internal-routing frames sometimes ship with cable ports just slightly tight against the housing's outer diameter; a few strokes with the round file opens the port enough to accept the housing without binding.
• Deburring a tapped thread before chasing it. When a thread has been newly cut (e.g., by the M3 or M5 frame tap), the cut leaves small burrs at the entry; the round file removes them so the new fastener threads in cleanly.
• Cleaning the inside of a worn brake-pad backing-plate socket. When the socket has built up grease and brake dust over years, a few strokes with the round file restore clearance.
• Trimming a slot or cable groove to a slightly wider profile. Less common in modern bike work but occasionally needed on retrofit accessory mounts.
• Removing a press-fit burr from inside a small hole. A small steel pin or rivet pressed into a bracket sometimes leaves a burr around the hole; the round file removes it without removing material from the surrounding metal.

For flat-face work (brake pad deglazing, deburring flat edges, removing material from a bolt end), the flat bastard file is the right tool. For combined flat-and-curved work, the half-round file.

Specs

• 200 mm long
• 7.5 mm working diameter
• Bastard cut
• Premium hard plus carbon steel
• Wooden handle pre-fitted, hanging hole
• Article number: 763HB-US (round)

Built in Zreče, Slovenia

Unior has been forging hand tools in Zreče since 1919, and is the official technical partner of multiple World Tour and downhill teams. The round file's carbon-steel stock, the bastard-cut tooth profile, and the wooden-handle fit are the same construction across the three file profiles Unior catalogs for the bicycle workshop. A working shop owns all three because each one handles a job the others can't.

Pro tip from our mechanics

The round file is the most-forgotten file in a working shop because the work it does is so small. The day a cable port needs to be 0.5 mm wider, no other tool delivers that level of controlled material removal. Our workshop hand tools guide covers files and the rest of the workshop hand-tool layer: Workshop hand tools every bike shop needs →