Odd Tool... Gimlet Rasp?

[Jim Koepke]

My brother loves to go to estate sales and buy things he then sells. He often finds good hand tools that he will give or sell to me at cost.

This one has been laying in a drawer for a while. Then one of my projects involves having some slots cut through some pieces of wood and this worked pretty well at being able to remove wood.

192501

The decal on the handle is the only identification. It says Germany and looks like there may have been a crown emblem.

Anyone have any idea about this tool's history?

jtk

[Bill Houghton]

I own a couple of similar tools, and, yes, they were marketed as rasps for small holes that you could drill yourself with the tool - drill first, rasp to shape (I remember seeing the ads). If I recall correctly, they were being sold in the last 20 years or so; not sure if they still are. Mine came from garage sales, my basic source for tools - so I don't know maker or original price.

I've yet to use the "drill first" part, and they're a tad flexible for precision rasping; but they do have the benefit of having a small diameter for the roughness of the rasp (at least mine do), so you can work in a small hole and shape/enlarge it quickly.