Help working with old Cast Steel file/rasp

JDWARE

JDWARE

Joined
Nov 28, 2011
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I have a large old rasp made by McCaffrey File Co. of Philadelphia. It's marked "McCaffrey, Phlda" and "waranted Cast Steel". I'm guessing it's late 19th or early 20th century. I'd like to try using the steel to make a knife or two. My thought is to anneal it, grind off the teeth, forge it out flat and thinning it, and turning it into some flat stock.

Any thoughts on annealing temps and heat treating procedures. for CAST STEEL?

Saludos
J

In the 1921 book Munitions Manufacture In The Philadelphia Ordnance District there is a chapter on McCaffrey File company mainly about the role they played in supplying the US military during WWI. There is a brief description of the manufacturing process beginning with "The steel used in making the McCaffrey Files comes in bars eight to ten feet long, the bars being of different shapes, either round, half round, square, triangular or flat ..........." but no mention of where the bars come from. Also not sure in my rasp pre or post dates this book.
 
Cast steel has a carbon content of .75% or less, so I would work the files as if they were 1070.

Most smiths who use a file to make a knife try to leave the teeth pattern on the upper bevels. Otherwise, you might just as well use known steel.
 
Thanks, Stacy, for the info on the carbon content.

Re. grinding off the teeth..... I really have no interest in leaving the teeth pattern showing. My only interest is in making a folding knife from a steel that was produced a hundred or more years ago, via processes no longer used, sourced from an old file made in the city where I was born. I am aware of the trade-offs and downsides of using an unknown steel.

Saludos
J
 
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