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I Forge Iron

Hot Rasping


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Divermike mentioned "Hot Rasping" in another thread. Ok Dale You have my attention (or anyone else for that matter). Do you care to elaborate a bit on this process? Is it just filing while the iron is hot or are you trying to achieve a particular finish.
I generally get the pristine smoothness with my hammer, resulting in minor buffing with a wire wheel.
Do you use a file or a rasp?
Most interested
cheers
Chris

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I use a farrier's rasp and use it to rough dress things like cut ends that may have a bit of "flash" still on them. I usually work at a low red to black heat---it's faster than filing on it cold and the aggressive rasp wouldn't work on it cold.

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Mark Aspery's tool list included a farriers rasp, I had to ask if it was the big nasty one, and it is. The journeyman tasks on some of the lists include something to the effect of forging and smoothing with a hot rasp, and I had never seen it done. We made several tools in his class, and he wanted octagonal heads on the striking ends, and they tend to flare a bit, so he showed us the way to knock them down hot, and also to smooth a point, among other things, it is really a simple procedure, but now I am no longer in ignorance of it. And it makes it clear how some smiths work I've seen is so much neater than anything I had previously done.

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Thanks for all the advice, I'm going to give it a try to see what sort of finish I get. I have a few of what I thought where farriers files / rasps for horses hoofs. There is no handle, but 4 distinct different surfaces plus the edges, the cutting surfaces all face inwards, you need to rotate and or flip the rasp / file end for end to use all four surfaces. The only thing I know about shoeing horses is how to shoo them away. LOL

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