Tap reseating

Oh, it's one of those, with the "safety" (ie, blunt and useless) cutters which as you say takes ages to achieve very little.

What you need is one of these ...

Had similar experiences with that tool.

(a) took a long time for a seat with a lump actually missing - faulty manufacture? (b)pack of tap washers I bought had none of the correct size.

As Gareth says, the one you have takes ?forever?. From memory, it can also be a pain to fit in some taps.

Plus, it can leave a ridge on some taps - I suspect the cutter is slightly under diameter. I noticed this when a repaired tap started dripping again and the new washer had been cut around the edge. I was able to find a slightly under sized washer as a temporary fix as the whole bathroom was about to be replaced.

AFAIK, we don?t have any conventional taps left. Just the modern, pain in the rear, modern ones.

Pretty mixed reviews there.

To be fair it was only one tap which must be original 1960's that was quite gauged out and so one hollow spot I had to grind down to.

The other 3 taps I've done were all clean and shiny after about 10 turns.

This or those like it

I was taught to turn these forwards until the tap was "shiny all round", i.e. any low spots were removed, and then turn the cutter backwards to burnish and remove burrs.

(For anyone buying one new: avoid the ones with a one-size-fits-all conical brass piece, i.e one like

Thomas Prufer