Repairing metal files / rasps

[alvispace]

Hello new found friends. I was happy to see such a site exists in my search for help tonight, thanks to all who created/built this site.

I'm new to the forum and tried several types of searches before just coming out and asking. If the topic has been discussed already, please do point me to where it resides.

I came across some very old, but very nice tools this weekend. One D.R. Barton 1832 hand ax, two large Washburn splitting axes, 3 flat files (Disston & Grobet) and 4 rasps (unknown brand).

The question I have to all of you vastly superior/experienced metal workers is this:

Can files/rasps be restored once worn/dulled? If so, is it a machining process or by hand with what tools?

Thank you all for your help.

Alvis

[pkrankow]

You can clean and pickle or etch them, or have them etched to restore some sharpness, but dulled files become high carbon stock. New files are relatively inexpensive.

Phil

[OddDuck]

Weygers describes restoring files in his book by giving them an acid bath, he shows using battery acid, soak the files in the acid for a while and thouroughly rinse them after to stop the process. I'd be quite careful doing this, and the results may be less than great. He said that this was if no new files could be gotten and you really really needed one. Pkrankow is right, it will probably be just as easy to buy new, and you will get better results. I'm with you, I hate to see an old tool die, but turning it into a brand new tool is a good use as well. Just think of it as reincarnation... ;)

[easilyconfused]

Acid etching will sharpen them up slightly. As well, making sure they're fully cleaned out and not loaded is sometimes all that's needed depending on the person you got them from. If they won't work on cold metal or wood, you can use them for cleaning up hot metal before you turn them into something else. I haven't heard of any cost efficient method of sharpening files to full sharpness though.

[viking-sword]

I use alot of the cheap chinese files and rasps as hard as I am on them, and I can take them when they are completly out of biting capabilities and put them in a large plastic pitcher and fill it up with a gallon of white vinegar from the local market, leave them for four days and pull them and wash them with hot soapy water and baking soda to neutralize the acidity from the vinegar, and they have much more life in them. Your files are probably not near as bad as mine when I do this but you do need to clean them good before doing this otherwise the vinegar will not be able to do it's job. I would also put some form of cover atop the pitcher to cut down on odor and to keep the evaporating vinegar from settling on other metal objects in the work area and starting corrosion. Wes

[Nakedanvil - Grant Sarver]

I like the idea of slow with vinegar. Sounds a lot safer. Put the thing outside, for heaven sake.

[Sukellos]

Weygers describes restoring files in his book by giving them an acid bath, he shows using battery acid, soak the files in the acid for a while and thouroughly rinse them after to stop the process. I'd be quite careful doing this, and the results may be less than great. He said that this was if no new files could be gotten and you really really needed one. Pkrankow is right, it will probably be just as easy to buy new, and you will get better results. I'm with you, I hate to see an old tool die, but turning it into a brand new tool is a good use as well. Just think of it as reincarnation...

Reincarnation - by Wallace McRae

A cowpoke asked his friend.

His pal replied, "It happens when

Yer life has reached its end.

They comb yer hair, and warsh yer neck,

And clean yer fingernails,

And lay you in a padded box

Away from life's travails."

"The box and you goes in a hole,

That's been dug into the ground.

Reincarnation starts in when

Yore planted 'neath a mound.

Them clods melt down, just like yer box,

And you who is inside.

And then yore just beginnin' on

Yer transformation ride."

"In a while, the grass'll grow

Upon yer rendered mound.

Till some day on yer moldered grave

A lonely flower is found.

And say a hoss should wander by

And graze upon this flower

That once wuz you, but now's become

Yer vegetative bower."

"The posy that the hoss done ate

Up, with his other feed,

Makes bone, and fat, and muscle

Essential to the steed,

But some is left that he can't use

And so it passes through,

And finally lays upon the ground

This thing, that once wuz you."

"Then say, by chance, I wanders by

And sees this upon the ground,

And I ponders, and I wonders at,

This object that I found.

I thinks of reincarnation,

Of life and death, and such,

And come away concludin': 'Slim,

You ain't changed, all that much.'"

"What does Reincarnation mean?"

[Richard Newby]

I use alot of the cheap chinese files and rasps as hard as I am on them, and I can take them when they are completly out of biting capabilities and put them in a large plastic pitcher and fill it up with a gallon of white vinegar from the local market, leave them for four days and pull them and wash them with hot soapy water and baking soda to neutralize the acidity from the vinegar, and they have much more life in them. Your files are probably not near as bad as mine when I do this but you do need to clean them good before doing this otherwise the vinegar will not be able to do it's job. I would also put some form of cover atop the pitcher to cut down on odor and to keep the evaporating vinegar from settling on other metal objects in the work area and starting corrosion. Wes

Do you think this would work on horse rasps?

[viking-sword]

Do you think this would work on horse rasps?

I've never found a horse rasp to be tempered as hard as most files, the reason I say this,is because that makes them more subject to greater wear damage, and even a real strong acid dip is not going to help bring back any sharpness if their wore down to far. It can't hurt to try, just clean the files and rasp as best you can and soak them for three or four days in a tub of cheap vinegar. There not usable to you now anyway, and then you will know and see for your self if they are salvagable. Best of luck, Wes

[tcreeley]

Farriers often send their used files off to be treated- acid bath probably- but they go through a file quickly. Usually they just buy a bunch more. A friend of mine would give me his used rasp and it was perfect for filing iron, though not sharp enough for a hoof. (good for wood too). I tried Chinese rasps to trim my horse's feet and they were lousy. - too few teeth and too shallow a cut. I like Nichelson and Diamond.

[Bentiron1946]

Sukellos,Funny poem about road apples.
I have done the acid soak for files and found it not all that good, but of some use for needle files. Files that have a coarse cut and badly used it does not restore that much usefulness compared to the effort. I have found it better to use the old files for other tools as they are good steel. Decorative stamps,scrapers and wood chisels come to mind for uses as well as knives.