Zelf ringen maken van gesmolten zilver

What do “vijlen” and “polijsten” mean in Dutch?

Dutch primary-school crafting (knutselen) leans heavily on two finishing verbs: vijlen (“to file”) and polijsten (“to polish”). They show up in every workshop instruction, from clay class to woodwork to the silver-ring-making in this clip. Vijlen uses a vijl, the same word for “rasp” and “nail file”; polijsten uses a polijstdoek or buffing wheel.

The verbs matter because Dutch craft vocabulary is extremely concrete. There is no broad “to finish a piece.” You file, you polish, you sand, you sand again. The clip closes with “de ring alleen nog even afwerken door te vijlen en te polijsten,” which is the standard Dutch sequence.