A Nice Set of Riffler Rasps

[Jim Koepke]

As is often my wont to search the Lee Valley site for specials and such, an item appeared that seemed worth taking a chance:

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The write up didn't mention the country of origin. At that price it was surely not going to be from the well known makers in France. My guess was right, Pakistan does make a lot of tools. They can also make quality tools.

Gave one of these a quick try out today before having to run in to town.

Didn't have time to compare it to my other rasps but it could be coaxed in to leaving a very smooth finish. It is all in the skewing. My guess is they are about a 13 grain.

My only regret is not buying two sets to send one to my grandson, though he got a boat load of tools just last month.

jtk

[Assaf Oppenheimer]

I am going to have to get a decent set of rasps someday, right now I am way over budget with my tool expenses. a decent set of rasps isn't mandatory for building a blocky workbench.

enjoy, your grandson is luck to have you

[Frederick Skelly]

That's a good tip Jim. Thank you for posting it.
Fred

[Jim Koepke]

A little time was spent in the shop today with an opportunity to compare the new set of rifflers to my other hand stitched rifflers and rasps.

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The two rasps on the right are Auriou 13 & 15 grain rasps.
The bottom four rifflers are the LV rasps.
The next six are all marked Italy.
The top rasp is marked China. Notice the difference of the toothing pattern on the one from China. The teeth on my Chinese rifflers are also much coarser than on any of my other rifflers or hand stitched rasps.

My guesstimate was off a bit on the rasp grain specs. The teeth are not as densely placed as those on an Auriou rasp. Their size looks to be more like a 10 or 11 grain.

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They do seem to be similar to some of my Italian riffler rasps.

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Another close up:

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These were all purchased in different estate sales or listings on ebay. Usually a few at a time.

Just for fun, here are a couple of riffler files.

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The top one is marked England. These are handy when working on metal.

jtk

[Chuck Hill]

If anyone is interested in a (probably) better set see:
https://www.northwestpassagetools.com/collections/clearance-and-sale-items/products/6-piece-hand-cut-riffler-rasp-set
Hand stitched in Portugal. Note that prices are in Canadian dollars, so significantly cheaper when translated in US$.

[Jim Koepke]

Chuck, look at the stitching patern on those compared to Logier, Auriou, the Lee Valley rasps and the Italian rasps in my images.

The Portuguese rasps have straight across stitching as opposed to the angled stitching of all the others. They also look to not only have a less dense tooth pattern, the teeth appear to be taller. The ad copy reads:


all have a No. 3 (smooth) cut which gives a medium finish for rasps.

They may be great for more rapid removal of stock. They also look like they may solve one of the problems my Chinese rasps suffer, the teeth tend to clog. This seems to be due to the teeth being too close together. The Portuguese rasps have look to have enough space between them to be able to clear any waste between themselves.

jtk