bellota classic farrier rasp

M

manassas dragon

Joined
Dec 3, 2009
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158
anybody know the type of steel used in farrier rasps. i have seen references to knives made from farrier rasps and i have asked about it before, but is it worth it,particularly for a beginner. i have a few and i thought that they would at least be good to practice on. i'm hoping that they approximate something like 1095-so maybe i could actually make a servicible blade.

any thoughts on the matter are welcomed.

thanx,guys
 
It all depends on the maker of the rasp but most can be used for blades. You'll probably have to anneal it first though. As for what kind of steel they are, it all depends on the maker. I think Nicholson used to (or still does) make their files out of W1 or 1095. If I were going to use a file though, I'd stay away from cheap foreign made files like the ones from HF. A lot of em are just case hardened mild steel or such.

For a beginner however, I recommend you stick to known steels. Even if you know what steel you have the annealing and re-hardening leaves a lot of room for error. If you dont anneal properly and the steel is still to hard to work, you're going to have a miserable time making that knife. Plus a lot of the guys who use files and such are more experienced. So my advice to you is get some simple carbon steel like 1080 from Kelly Cupples and take it from there.
 
BChou is giving you good advise.
Save those rasps for when you get some experience. For a new maker, they will probably just be used for a piece of steel to make a simple knife.
Later on you can make some nice patterned blades....or my favorite, a hawk,... from those rasps.
 
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