SHEPPARDB. said:
No it doesnt.I've been doing this to my guits for years,and I
have never damaged one.
Yes, it does. I have seen what people do to their guitars with the wrong tools, and it always at least doubles the cost of doing the repair right, as we need to fix their mistakes. You can not do nut adjustments properly with out the right tools, period. You will either mess up the spacing, or you will make a V shaped grove, or you will cut the slot too deep.
Nut adjustment is a very particular thing, and very few people seem to be any good at it, from what I have seen. This, more than any other single thing, is what separates a good shop from a mediocre shop. There is not a factory in the world which ships guitars with a properly adjusted nut, and I promise you it is not possible to do it with an emery board. If you doubt me, you have never had your guitar setup by a professional, and you don't know what you are missing.
Contrary to just about everything else on the guitar, there is only one proper nut adjustment. Nut adjustment is a big deal, and getting it wrong will cause either buzzing of the open strings, or poor intonation in the first position. The only exception to this is if you are using a guitar primarily as a slide guitar, in which case it needs to be a bit high.
Light
"Cowards can never be moral."
M.K. Gandhi