I see a lot of folks utilize rasps for knife making and the like..LOL, only thing Ive used them for is a horses hoof What metal do you think thier made of? Like a file..1095 or a 1.2% carbon steel??? Ive heard a few of the cheaper brands were case hardened mild???

Edited October 28, 200817 yr by KYBOY

They seem to vary by brand/country of origin. Junkyard steel rules apply!

I make a few rasptlesnakes and when I'm using old rasps I'll save the ones that seem stiffer under the hammer for edged tools.

Modern horse rasps are very poor mild steel... Bellota's are roughly 1035 and have the highest carbon in the industry... Blackmaster rasps are nitrided and are like 1011-1018 I can't remember which, other brands vary somewhere between those two brackets for high and low. The industrial hardening processes produce a nice tooth, and leaves the body flexible enough so it doesn't snap the first time you swat a horse on the rump;-) They make a decent camp or farm knife, they are easy to sharpen, and durable, but don't hold a super edge. My wife like her big farmwife knife:-) They are also nice for making other interesting things, like stall latches, table legs, barn door handles, brackets, lizards, dinosaurs, etc...

I thought these "patented save edge usa" farrier files were going to make really nice forge-welded edges, guess I should forget about them? Mmm, bye, reliable high carbon easy-to-come-by JY steel :-). Thanks for warning Finn.

I was told by a farrier that simmonds was still high carbon..Im not sure though..he hardened it it shattered but then agin it may have been case hardened???

Edited October 29, 200817 yr by KYBOY

If it shatters, its not case hardened, case hardening only affects the outer surface of the steel

A freind of mine works the vendor hall at the AFA conventions and he asked around with some of his old freinds, one of them worked with Simonds and got him the specs on the steel used in the rasps. Third hand information, but it seems to pan out from my exprience with them. Anyway if you think about it water quenched at the right temp, even mild steel will get hard and will break in thin cross sections. Not to mention rasps are cut in such a way that there are a ton of stress risers, making them even more likely to shatter, especially if they are hardened all the way through.

This question really made me curious, so I spark tested one of my Diamond rasps. Mild steel:o

Diamond rasps are notorius for thier poor quaility, among the farrier circles that is...I read on a bladesmith site the other day where a farrier said he called simmonds and according to him the manufacturer said thiers were 1095..Heres a link..It also has some info on nicholson files..A email posted straight from customer service stating they are 1095...Might interest some of you guys..
http://forums.dfoggknives.com/index.php?showtopic=5417&hl=rasps

Edited November 9, 200817 yr by KYBOY