Hand cut Italian rifflers

[James Taglienti]

I recently picked these up at an auction and i can't figure out who the maker might be... they are high quality, hand cut rifflers that just say "Italy" on them. They all have fat octagonal handles. I am hoping that they are Auriou but as i have never actually seen one i can't be sure. I'd think that auriou would mark his rasps with a brand.... these don't seem to have one, but they sure are razor sharp :D

[David Keller NC]

They are definitely not Aurious - I have more than a dozen of them.

They also don't really look hand-cut, though they look to be far higher quality than the junk asian-made ones that I started out with.

[Jim Koepke]

Aurious are/were made in France.

I have some similar, also made in Italy that are nice. I am saving some money and hope to buy one or two Aurious soon. If they are better than the Italians, which is what I suspect, they will be great.

Lee Valley sold Italian made riffler rasps in the past. Not sure if they still do. They call their current rifflers hand made, but do not say the origin.

David, I am curious as to what visual signs you may see to indicate they are not hand made?

jim

[george wilson]

Woodcraft sold Italian rifflers like those back in the 1960's. I bought a set,but somehow some of them are gone.

[James Taglienti]

I had no idea where auriou was out of. that stuff was always too pricey for me. as far as them being hand cut, i am pretty certain. they could be some of the no name hand cut italian ones that i see floating around here and there...

[Phillip Pattee]

Milani is the only maker of hand cut rasps and rifflers in Italy of which I know. They are available here: http://www.fine-tools.com/feile8.htm and I might add that they don't look like your set. Yours may be older.

[James Taglienti]

i can't tell the vintage of these at all. they came in a carving cabinet that had 50+ gouges of all different vintages, but all from one life time, say 1940 to now. so i am baffled.

[David Keller NC]

David, I am curious as to what visual signs you may see to indicate they are not hand made?

jim

From the picture, it appears that the teeth are variably spaced across each row of teeth, but the rows themselves have roughly uniform spacing. This is a characteristic of the variable-spacing machine that makes the Nicholson #49 and #50 rasps. The Aurious that I own have both variable teeth spacing and the teeth aren't really in rows - it's a fairly random pattern over the space of the tool.

Of course, that's based on an oblique photo - they could indeed be hand-cut.

[James Taglienti]

Here is another shot. The rasp on the far right has the most consistent spacing of the bunch. The other two are about average.