anyone make anything out of old used rasps? i make some clinch blocks for seating nails and ive made a few snaked for my little brothers from rasps. ive even split a few in half cut the tangs off and forged shoes out of them.

clinch block is the only thing i have a pic of.

There have been some good looking rasp-spurs shown on this forum not too long ago. As for the snake, a lotta' guys make the scales run backwards by using the tang as a ready made tail. It should be reversed. Cut off the tang and forge a snake's head at that end.

Turley Forge and Blacksmithing School : The Granddaddy of Blacksmithing Schools

They're good steel so they've been used for knives and hoof nipper repairs too.

ive got boxes and boxes of old rasps. they go thru three cycles for me. foot clinching and hot rasping. heck i had adds up on craigs list trying to give them away with no takers. some rasps are better steel than others. belotas for example are total crap. save edge is a close second on the crap list along with diamond and nicholson. they go dull fast and are brittle as all get up. ive switched to a german brand called mecury and so far they last the longest and the steel forges out nice too. i have been wanting to rip on down on the band saw and forge out a couple loop knives and sole knives. im fairly sure i can get the blade forged out but the tempering and what not is not my area.

ive got a few 17in rasps that ive considered heating bending fluxing and repete and fold up a block and forge a hammer head from. somone made a cross pein from a rasp on the world championship blacksmiths board for a contest prize.

Edited December 18, 200916 yr by horseshoer1983

i like rasps for the scale effect i make snake door handles and dragons from them . here is a picture or 2 of a dragon i made years ago .. took a wile to sell but it was a good showpiece !

I have folded a rasp over and welded it up into a nice light kindling hatchet, no added bit needed.

I also do a bunch of snakes and draw out the tail long and skinny and punch a bunch of bottle caps and thread them on to make rattler's that sound pretty much like the real thing---you can tell who has experience by the folks in the crowd that suddenly turn and focus on the sound.

Good to see other horseshoers around. Personaly for hoof knives I dont think I would try a rasp. I made a pretty sweet hunting knife for my brother last year out of a rasp. I have seen shoes and such made with them and I have seen some people use them to forge weld in as the bar on a straight bar shoe. The snakes are cool and that dragon above is AWESOME! Spurs look great when made with rasp. I also have a clinch block I made from a finishing rasp. You could make a clinch cutter or a hoof gouge if you use either of them. I have seen people stick them in the ground tang down around flower beds and such.

matthew. i cant go nowhere with out running into someone from one of the other fourms lol i stole dans idea of using rasps for stock to turn shoes out of after talking to him on wcb one nite when i was out of stock lol . i made a couple push gouges out of the tangs that work great when i bother to use them.

j.m shrader aka "halfmiler"

Hey JM. The good sites are home to a lot of the same people.

i like rasps for the scale effect i make snake door handles and dragons from them . here is a picture or 2 of a dragon i made years ago .. took a wile to sell but it was a good showpiece !

How did you make the wing? They look so delicate!

How did you make the wing? They look so delicate!

they are sheet metal with a 1/4 in round rod welded into the leading edge . they are 16 ga if i remember right . i made a cardboard patern and cut them out with a beverly shear creases were done with a fairly sharp filler and the vice opened about 1/4 in to pound into.

I wouldn't cut the tang, I would fold it under and inside the head and use it to beef up the head, split it and make a forked tongue Like Bruce Butler did in the seventies

Fold forming the wings works well too, gives them a lot more "body".

I have made a scribe, trade axes/tomahawks, and chisels from ferriers rasps.  I have yet to make the rasp asp from one of them.  I use them to hot rasp as well.  I also use them to work on wood handles for many of my tools. 

We have made a lot of hawks from farriers rasps but be forewarned when bladesmithing a farriers rasp..Not all of the new rasps are created equal..Some new rasps are nothing more than low/medium carbon steel. In the 1040 range..Ive seen the MSD on one that is made from 1038 carbon steel..

rasp Asp's are always a big hit at the craft fairs..

Oh I know as most things are nowadays.  I just heard a story of ball peins being case hardned mild steel.  Don't know if it is true but wouldn't be supriesed if it was.   

I have a handful of farriers rasps and I can't bring myself to burn them up because they work so darned well! They'll file and rasp mild steel well enough, and I used one today to shape out an axe handle for a project. I'm going to need to get a few more before I can bear to experiment on any.

Greetings,

 

Try the rough side of the rasp under the treadle hammer or flypress for a texture tool... Cool on copper..  Wings for your dragon

 

Jim

Farrier rasps make great shed door handles.

Here's a couple for you, made by Tom Willoughby

 

 

i sell alot of ours to a knife maker over here, i've made clenching blocks, buffers, knives and all sorts but there is only so much you can do! 

Hey KYBOY - thanks for the heads up on the different qualities between individual rasps - I just started using them myself lately. Both my wife and I are farriers, and the stockpiles of old ones were growing ever larger. Right now, I'm experimenting with simply forge welding them in half lengthwise back into billets of steel, upsetting one end, and making various sorts of tongs from them. From experience, I know that they can be fairly brittle (watching a horse stand on a new one left carelessly on the floor! ) and have thought perhaps that a bit of annealing might help avoid any disastrous cracking due to an accidental hammer blow to the head of the tongs while in use.

Hey KYBOY - thanks for the heads up on the different qualities between individual rasps - I just started using them myself lately. Both my wife and I are farriers, and the stockpiles of old ones were growing ever larger. Right now, I'm experimenting with simply forge welding them in half lengthwise back into billets of steel, upsetting one end, and making various sorts of tongs from them. From experience, I know that they can be fairly brittle (watching a horse stand on a new one left carelessly on the floor! ) and have thought perhaps that a bit of annealing might help avoid any disastrous cracking due to an accidental hammer blow to the head of the tongs while in use.

 

New files are brittle, (unless case hardened) and will snap easily, hence cracking when stood on by the horse

 

If you are going to use them for other tooling, anneal first, then forge, and allow to cool slowly,

 

They make good tongs, punches and hot cuts as forged, if you allow them to get red hot and cool in water, then they will be brittle again, in general use, keep them cool at the working end, it should not be a problem.

Horseshoer1983 do you have any more pics of the cinch block?

I doubt you will get an answer, seeing as Horseshoer1983 hasn't been on the forum since 1/3/2010.