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.
Obviously someone forgot to temper the steel after hardening it. Nicholson #49 and #50 patternmakers rasps aren’t what they used to be when they were made in the USA. Joel at Tools for Working Wood warned us of the poor quality of the imported rasps several years ago, and I haven’t bought any since. Since I also have a rasp and file “problem” I have resigned myself to paying dearly for hand stitched Auriou rasps, which I get from Lie-Nielsen. Their advantages include that they work so much better than even the original Nicholsons, both faster and leaving a smoother surface that requires less work at the next refinement step. While the Nicholsons are available in only two coarsenesses (grains, in standard rasp terminology) that are quite close together, Aurious are available in a much wider range of grains. They are also made in both right handed and left handed stitch patterns. The difference in action between using them with the correct hand vs. the incorrect hand is remarkable. If you are left handed and all you have used are right handed patternmakers rasps, I could easily predict that you are not a fan of rasps.