Musings

A Disappointing Tool

A year ago I purchased a pair of brand new Nicholson patternmaker’s rasps to add to my inventory — I do not  have a “file” problem, it’s just that I do not think having hundreds of files and rasps on hand is excessive — and have used the finer one a good bit in working on the Gragg Chairs up in the fourth floor video studio.  The coarser one remained in my second floor workshop getting very little work until I was doing some rough shaping on green wood burl last week.  Given the wet nature of the burl, the rasp clogged pretty rapidly.  As I smacked the tool against the side of my workbench to knock out the offending material, the rasp, with only an hour or two of bench time (none of it abusive), shattered into four pieces.  Obviously in hindsight I should have used a wire brush or file card to clean the rasp, but I was pretty disappointed at how fragile the tool was.