Woodpeckers Rasp

[Billbo]

I saw this is on sale and wondered if it is worth $26.99.

http://www.woodpeck.com/rasp.html?_bta_t...0b1drqfwa5

In general Woodpecker tools are good quality (but usually expensive).

Anyone have this tool or any experience with it?

[hbmcc]

If produced in the US, they are machine made. I never knew how good a rasp was until I tried a hand stitched one. I never looked at a rasp because they were such crap, and now, I never look at a machine cut one because those are crap. 

The variability of the teeth in one that is handmade is 99-percent of the cutting effectiveness. Auriou, Liogier, and the stainless ones Tools for Working Wood sell are hand stitched. The good ones are 3 to 4 times costlier than the Peckers, but do you want to shape wood or make a butcher knife. The hastle with hand stitched rasps is they are made in various shapes and grits(?). Nothing in life is easy today.

[Bill_Houghton]

It's a farrier's rasp.  The introductory price is competitive with other U.S. made farrier's rasps, when you include the handle.  The retail price is about $15 too high, relative to other U.S. made rasps.

No idea of the quality of this particular one.

I owned a farrier's rasp for a while and found it way too coarse for my particular uses of rasps.  If I wanted to remove that much wood, I'd reach for the drawknife.  But your mileage may vary.

If I were thinking about buying it, I'd go on Amazon and look for "U.S. farrier's rasp," and read through the reviews for what I found; or track down some farrier's supply catalogs, and try to get a sense of what's on the market.

I've been wondering why they didn't anodize it red.

[Admiral]

+1 for the TFWW rasps, reasonably priced for hand stitched, and I love mine.  You get what you pay for when buying rasps.

[Adnick]

Have a few Narex rasps and for the price they are great, handles aren't bad, cut is aggressive, a hand stitched rasp is easier to control ....

Andy

-- mos maiorum

[wood2woodknot]

The farrier's rasp I found recently was so coarse it looked more lke hobnails on a stick. OK for what it was intended, but way too coarse for woodworking projects.

[Bibliophile 13]

The Czech-made hand-stitched rasps at Lee Valley (black handles) are also a very good value. They're not as good as the French-made rasps, but they're also 1/3 of the price. If you're going to use a rasp only occasionally, these are good.

[AHill]

Farrier's rasps are way too aggressive for 95% of what you will do in woodworking.  Years ago, I purchased one thinking it would be great for coarse work.  It's simply too aggressive, and it grabs too easily.  Horses' hooves are much softer than wood.  I do own some US made Nicholson rasps (No. 49 and No. 50), Gramercy (Tools for Working Wood), Auriou, and Liogier.  The best rasps are the Auriou and Liogier, with an ever so slight nod to the Auriou.  The Gramercy rasps are a step down from the French ones.  They are not as sharp and it just takes longer with them.  Then the Nicholsons, which are decent rasps, but they don't leave as smooth a cut as the others.  I have a few Iwasaki mill-toothed files as well.  They are very good for what they do, and they are very sharp, but can tend to get a bit grabby without a light touch.  Sometimes you want to remove a lot of material quickly.  The hand stitched rasps are great at doing that while still leaving a fairly decent surface behind.

Keep your rasps clean!  I prefer a nylon or hog's hair bristle brush.  I can't bring myself to use a wire brush / comb.  I just don't see them being kind to the sharp points of rasps.  I also store my rasps so they don't bang on each other.  It really bothers me to go to Rockler and see a pile of rasps all tossed in the same container.  That just makes a crappy rasp crappier.

[Adnick]

My grandfather made his own horse shoes and did shoes for all our horses, and he had a set of rasps from very small to very large, both course and fine.

I use to turn the bellows's wheel and never gave any thought to making horse shoes, knifes and barn hinges and other stuff, didn't know that he was probably 1 in 100,000

He passed away while I was on some training mission for the Army, all his stuff was divided up by the time I got back home....

Andy

-- mos maiorum

[Rob Young]

The Czech-made hand-stitched rasps at Lee Valley (black handles) are also a very good value.  They're not as good as the French-made rasps, but they're also 1/3 of the price.  If you're going to use a rasp only occasionally, these are good.

Bought one to play with.  Much more aggressive than a new-made Nicholson #49 and about the same finish surface.  But also shorter, I think.

And I have one of the TFWW handstiched "handlemaker" rasps. Man, for the money, that thing is great at what it does. Compound curve rasp is a little funky to use sometimes but does very well on inside curves.