I had an idea to use a rasp as the material to form a fish with scales.

I'm curious if anyone has had any experience with spreading a rasp while minimizing the loss of scale texture. 

Watching some videos of people making cobras from a rasp, it looks like my best option is going to be spreading as much as possible from the edges and just accepting the loss of texture in those areas.

I know I can shape in a wooden stump but that won't spread it. I'm looking to spread, if possible, while keeping as much texture as possible.

Any ideas?

I don't really have a clue, so the only thing that comes to mind is taking a file to the teeth that have been hammered down. Assuming they are still present in any way. If that's a possibility, that would be a matter of how much time you'd want to put into it. If it were me, I think that's what I'd do without having a better plan. But I can work on tedious detail for probably way too long 

I've since come up with a different idea that won't require any spreading. But I am still curious about this in the event I ever revisit this concept

CGL, do you mean to basically recreate the scales? LOL, that's what I'm trying to avoid.

Lol yes and that would be a tremendous amount of work for sure. What have you come up with?

Even left as is before forging the teeth on a rasp and snake scales look very different and if you wish to make a working knife the cold shuts that are pretty unavoidable when forging a rasp down make it a pretty poor exercise. 

Leaving the edges of the file "smooth" is a decent option seeing as belly scales are generally smoother. 

Orrrrr, you could use a rasp to make a die by hammering it into a piece of low to medium carbon steel. Then imprint the scale pattern back into the successfully cold shut free ground smooth, forged as desired hoof rasp. Forming the snake body over a mandrel with a wooden mallet is pretty easy and leaves the texture.

Hmmmm?

Frosty The Lucky.

The trade item for the October club meeting is "something made from a large file". I have 3 rasps. I didn't wanna do the same thing I see everywhere - snakes, axes, knives - so I was trying to think of other things that had a similar texture that I could use the rasp for instead. 

I came up with: raspberries, dragon eggs, fish, wings of an insect, or just cut into strips and twist - use as handle for something? keychain?

I REALLY love the idea of raspberries just because of the play on words: RASPberries  - I'm still sorting out in my head if I can make that work though. When I said I had come up with a different idea that would work without spreading, the raspberries is what I was thinking of but it later occurred to me that the rasp is SO thick that it might be tough to form the shape without thinning it some. I might just cut a square chunk off and play though. Maybe I can make it work...

I'll give you the benefit of the doubt that you're explaining very basic puns for the benefit on those on the forum that haven't been punsters since they learned to talk. My Grandmother used to gripe good naturedly that Mother taught me to talk b associating things and punning what I said when I got it wrong. 

If the trade item is something made from a large file, how about finding a large filing cabinet and making a smoker out of it? File cabinets can often be had for hauling them off, check new offices or ones being remodeled. THAT would be a Pun!

I like raspberries and they'd be pretty easy to make. Cut out the berries(Blanks) after you grind or hammer the teeth down, Using a piece of wood with one end cut in the general shape of the berry and rounded smaller than the blanks. Or a dowel trimmed and rounded. Punches can be made of most anything, wood for this one) Heat the blank to bright yellow, drop it texture side down on a the end grain of a wood block and DRIVE the center of the blank into it with the "punch" and a big hammer. Repeat till it's sunk to your liking.

Hmmmm?

Frosty The Lucky.

Rasp-berries. I like it. I have 2 or 3 old rasps but never made anything from them. I use one that still has pretty good teeth for hot rasping. Y'all have good ideas for them that I'll store in my memory bank 

Thank you. I tend to free associate everything which makes me pretty good at blue sky thinking. 

Frosty The Lucky.

16 hours ago, Frosty said:

explaining very basic puns

The funnest part of a basic pun is emphasizing the basic pun! It's the ultimate "get it? (eyebrow wiggle)" 

Frosty, regarding the method you described - would that be wood on both sides? The wood bowl cavity and the wood punch driving into that hole? Or a pick-one scenario? 

Both, end grain wood block "female die" (anvil) Wood punch, "male die." You can drive it into a steel hole if you have one like my swage block but it WILL mar the texture you're trying to develop from the file teeth.

Do  you want pun lessons or something? Asking someone if they "get it" is a sure sign of a non-punster, it's as bad or worse than explaining one to make sure people got it. I haven't played at that level since I was maybe 8, some 65 years ago.

There are or were some real players on the forum, Thomas Powers was significantly better punster than I but we lost Thomas and not many folk play here anymore. <sigh>

Frosty The Lucky.

No lessons, I like my way thank you very much. It makes me laugh or at the least, smile. 

Both female/male wood dies is what I was envisioning you meant. I have never attempted to move that thick of material in wood before though. We'll see how it works out. I'll try to remember to update in this thread as I go forward with this project and any others that manipulate the rasps!

You may want to lay a heated blank on the bottom block to char the beginning of a depression. The first couple raspberries should impress more deeply.

Frosty The Lucky.

I thought for sure I'd soak the wood (male & female) in water before trying this. 

Only the punch until you have a depression to drive the blank into.

Frosty The Lucky.

On 8/27/2025 at 5:52 PM, Shainarue said:

I didn't wanna do the same thing I see everywhere - snakes, axes, knives - so I was trying to think of other things that had a similar texture that I could use the rasp for instead

  Kudos for thinking outside the box.  Not many do.  Monkey see, Monkey do....  I've never tried a rasp or file but look forward to whatever you come up with.  I actually wondered about doing a mini version of inflating one for a fish after reading this....somehow.  

  You know butterflys have scales, it's actually where their color comes from.  Bird legs/feet too, and many other things.  What fun it all is......

Could roll the whole rasp into a tube, give it a little bend and display it as a, "Dragon nose hair."

I like the idea of making an inflated fish from rasp(s). Post some pics if you'd be so kind Scott, I wanna see THAT! 

Frosty The Lucky.

  I can imagine a way such a thin thing could be inflated.  Can you?

A rasp . . . THIN? I can think of a couple but they'd require a bomb cabinet or distance to compensate for an explosive failure. Even if I had the pump to generate sufficient hydraulic pressure just a pinhole failure would do two things, eject a jet of fluid that'd cut steel and fill the space with a flammable mixture of oil vapor. Even non-flammable hyd. oils CAN be made to burn.

You?

Frosty The Lucky.

  Wow.  I was just thinking of heating one to white or yellow hot and appyling low pressure air to a slot and expanding it.  I'm not sure what your describing.  Bomb cabinets....  Hydraulics?  No more gedanken for me.

Okay the regular way. How long do you think the rasp teeth will last for texture after hitting atmosphere at yellow heat? I'm envisioning a shower of sparklers.

I've only ever inflated two things as a helper more than anything but I've seen what you can do so I'm more than happy to hear how. Even if you only THINK you can pull it off I'll go with the experience.

Frosty The Lucky.

No, I'm sorry now I piped up.  Those teeth would surely burn off.  I get so many ideas that I can't think them through fast enough.  You should see my pile of failures.  I started off just wanting to tell that butterflys have scales.  I'm going to build a bomb cabinet just for my own piece of mind and test purposes.  

I understand typing faster than I can think, I do it all the time. Don't be sorry, we know each other well enough to cut each other slack. I got caught in the moment skyballing. You know typing while thinking on a sidetrack.

Right now I've edited the above paragraph at least twice because I'm envisioning an iridescent butterfly scale sculpture and it's distracting. 

I'm not sorry you spoke up, you have great ideas even if I take them on a sidetrack and mangle them. 

Be well Brother,

Frosty The Lucky.

So, I changed direction. Meeting for this trade item is Saturday and I didn't have time to try the raspberry idea. I decided instead to make a snakeskin style keychain fob.

First, I took a few hours with the grinder to make it thin. I ground away the side with the diagonal teeth. I wanted the scale texture on both sides so I was going to fold it. And folding as-is would have been super thick, lol

Then I cut it to a pattern which I would fold over and forge weld. While folding over, both tabs broke off. Doh! I'm going to weld them back on tomorrow at lunch and see what I get. I'm demonstrating at an event tomorrow night and the meeting is Saturday so really, my lunch hour is my only shot at redemption, lol

This might not happen ..

Heat management is really important forging files, especially newer ones, they're almost always some proprietary mystery metal. 

Two thoughts for putting the texture on both sides. #1 and my favorite. Bring a piece of suitable steel, say A-36 to yellow heat and drive it onto the rasp, QUICKLY flip it over lay it on the rasp and smack it HARD with a reasonably heavy hammer but put a piece of wood between blank and hammer to protect the texture.

Method #2, forge and form the fob. Cur or break the rasp into 2 pieces and weld or make tabs so it hangs in your vise rasp teeth in, same side up. This is your texturing die. Heat your fob preform to bright yellow heat and QUICKLY squeeze it in the vise between the texturing dies. Let the dies draw some of the heat, open the vise and pry the textured fob off the dies.

Folding and welding what you have will make it VERY hard to maintain the rasp texture. It would be my last resort.

After the fob is textured you can give it some form like you would a leaf by driving it end grain into a soft wood block. Be gentle or the ball pein hammer will mar the texture or you can make and use a wooden dowel if you don't have a brass punch.

Frosty The Lucky.