Here's a recent and rather positive review in a magazine you may know :
http://www.popularwoodworking.com/to...hand-cut-rasps
Here's a recent and rather positive review in a magazine you may know :
http://www.popularwoodworking.com/to...hand-cut-rasps
Noël Liogier
I look forward to reading the full review. And I do hope you are vigorously pursuing a North American distributor in light of all this buzz.
Jim B
Has anyone else had some trouble viewing Noel's shopping site? I can get to a specific class of rasps (cabintemaker's, boot-makers, etc...), but when I try to select the range, size or stitching grain, the background of the web page goes dark (much like you'd see when pulling up a pop-up window), but it gets stuck there. I've tried using IE 32-bit (my default is IE 64 bit), and disabling firewall software, but no luck. Anybody got any ideas?
The site works fine on firefox, for me at least. I haven't made any orders, but I played around through options and had no troubles.
David,
I had the problem with my IE until I clocked on the "compatibility view" button, located just to the right of the URL entry box. The icon is of a torn sheet of paper.
FWIW, I'm using IE8.
Jim
One can never have too many planes and chisels... or so I'm learning!!
Works fine with Google Chrome..
Same here, I have fiddled around with it but not actually ordered.. lol
Yep, that was it - Thanks Jim!
BTW - A comment about the tradeoff b/t hardness and toughness. If the Titan and Saphire lines are coated, that gets around some of the trade-offs in steel between hardness and resilience, since the coating can be made considerably harder than steel can be usably tempered to, while leaving the underlying steel supporting structure somewhat softer to avoid brittleness. An example of this technique is often applied to drill bits - Titanium Nitride coatings. The only downside I can see to this is that once the rasp with the coating is actually dulled, sending it to an abrasive sharpening service like Boggs would likely strip away the surface. But then you'd still have a sharp rasp with an "ordinary" steel surface, so perfectly usable.
Interesting thought, David, and I agree... but I also wonder how quickly this would occur. TiN coated drill bits see high temperatures in use (unless Neandered <g>) which accelerates wear, unlike a hand-powered rasp. It wouldn't surprise me to find the coating having a long life. Additionally, as Noel says, if it withstands years of heavy use before it dulls... Hmmmm....
One can never have too many planes and chisels... or so I'm learning!!
I use coated end milling cutters all the time. When the rasp becomes dull,you can be assured that any useful coating has gone from the cutting edge. Look at it through 10X. Those coatings are quite thin. You will see shiny steel on the cutting edge if the rasp has dulled. Some of the benefits of coatings on milling cutters is that they reduce a false edge of metal building up. Titanium nitride is about 70 rockwell C, though I don't know at all what coating the rasps might have. TIN coatings are a beautiful golden color,so that's not it. There are several coatings out there by now. Some are dark. I have seen chrome(THIN) plating on cheap Chinese rasps years ago. It was so thin,I at first thought it was a thin spray of silver paint. When I was young,Sears sold "chrome clad" files. I didn't like them at the time because they didn't seem as sharp as uncoated ones. But,I was young,and could have been quite wrong in my perception at the time.
That said,I have found the OLD fine Nicholson rasps to be way too grabby until they get a little dulled from use.
Last edited by george wilson; 11-20-2011 at 8:01 PM.
GREAT RASPS and FANTASTIC SERVICE!!
I ordered 2 rasps, cabinet maker #9 and flat iron #9 from Noel 10 days ago, on a Friday. Within 30 minutes of ordering on-line I received an email explaining that they did heat treatment on Thursdays so my order would ship the following Friday. This morning Canada Post was at my door step with the package. Fantastic service, faster shipping than ordering within Canada or from the USA.
Comparing to my Auriou rasp, both #9's, the teeth on the Liogier appear to be deeper set and sharper.
Noel, thanks for the great rasps and the excellent service from easy on-line ordering, timely email confirmation to delivery.
Larry
Very cool! It's also good to see that there is at least one more specialty producer in this very specialized area. I just started using the Gramercy rasps, and as with other tools, the difference using a premium tool over the cheap junk is pure joy. For those worried about the Gramercy quality coming from Pakistan, while I'm certainly no expert, I'll point out that they're made by hand by one guy who specializes in them, so it seems the craftsmanship is on par with what we see here; it's not a third-world sweatshop churning out crappy castings of questionable metallurgy.
Noel, a question I have is, what is the stitching tool made of? It's amazing to see one strike of the hammer raising a perfect sharp tooth (bet it takes some time to develop that skill!). I realize that's done before they are hardened.
And looking at the website, interesting to see the surgical rasps! My wife is a surgical nurse specializing in orthopedics, so I've seen videos of these in use. Sometimes the surgeons have to be real artists getting implants to fit, more sculptor than doctor. Her hospital also repairs failed orthopedic implants. Talk about fine joinery!
Last edited by Steve Branam; 11-23-2011 at 5:27 PM. Reason: Noted the surgical rasps.
Steve, mostly hand tools. Click on my name above and click on "Visit Homepage" to see my woodworking blog.
The punches are home-made of course (like the hammers actually), we call them "grain of barley" because of the shape we give to the tip. They are very sharp and peaked, and needs to be resharpen often to maintain the quality of the teeth. The blank of the rasp is annealed before hand-stitching to get the steel softer and de-stressed (not sure this french word as any meaning in english, sorry). All these elements are very important for the resulting quality. Also the blank is mirror-polished before hand-stitching, otherwise any defects of the surface before raising the teeth could end up at the top of it after hand-stitching. OK I'll stop here before annoying everybody with details... but feel free to ask if someone as any question.
PS : there is an on-going pass-around review amongst member of another forum ; you can see it here.
Last edited by Noel Liogier; 11-24-2011 at 5:40 PM.
Noël Liogier
Hello.
+1 With Larry.
I own two of theses rasps and they're very good.
What is impressive is that even with a fine stitching (I have a 250 mm rasp with stich #9) the amount of material removed is important. They're fast to work with and They produce very fine shavings. So great ease of control.
Living in France I bought them in a store in Paris, unhandled. So buying online they're provided handled, which is even better.
So I'm glad to see that for once, it's one of our products that is exported over to you guys! I've imported so much tools from USA or Canada, that I'm happy things are reversed at least once in a while !
I'm glad also to ear that the service provided is great. But I hope Liogier will find a distributor for Americas. His products deserve it.
Regards.
Last edited by Erwin Graween; 11-30-2011 at 9:53 AM.
Bonjour Noel,
Just to let you know that I think, this can be translated by 'stress relieved'. Other creekers might confirm.de-stressed (not sure this french word as any meaning in english, sorry)
Regards.