Horseshoe Rasp Knives

J

johngalt

Joined
Feb 27, 2006
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I was given a few boxes of Heller H-1 Legend rasps from a ferrier who said I might try making knives out of them. I have tried to research both Heller rasps and the makers of rasp knives and have not been able to find much on the metal composition of these rasps.
If anyone can advise about them I would welcome the info. I would like to find out if it's worth the time to put the rasps to use as knives.
If anyone can let me know about annealing and differential hardning of these types of rasp, if it's something worth doing, I'll look forward to any info..Thanks!
 
They make good hawks.The steel is not usually right for blades,although some great looking bowies have been forged from rasps.
 
Ditto the tomahawk remark. Ive made a bunch of them. Heat to non magnetic twice then air cool to black. Heat to non magnetic a third time and soak in a tub of vermiculite overnight. It will be annealed and ready to forge.

The hawks Ive made have been wrapped poll type. Forge welded. Quench in oil to harden. . Temper at 425 F for one hour. I usually temper twice.

Ive seen nice bowies made out of these too. The steel is said to be 1095

Ive got a picture of a hawk I just made if you are interested..MIKE
 
Thanks bladsmth and tnmike! Sure tnmike if you've got a picture I'd love to see it. I was starting to think that no one was going to respond to my post and was glad to see the response.
tnmike, when you do your quench on the hawk, do you quench the entire hawk or just the cutting edge? How long do you leave it in the oil, until cool?
 
Yes to the above. I have seen some big knives made from farriers rasps, but the makers said it was more trouble (to heat treat properly) than it was worth, unless you want a lesson on heat treating! I make my hawks just like TNMike. If making them for throwing, I will edge quench to keep the back 3/4 of the head soft to better handle the beating from throwing.

Rick
 
I heat only the edge to non magnetic and then quench. (abt an inch to inch and a half depending on the hawk) Leave it in the oil until it cools below non magnetic and then quench in water to stop any drawback. Temper as above.
 
Some horseshoe rasps are really good to use for hawks or blades. The Nicholson Black Diamond, Bellota, and Save Edge brands respond to heat treat a lot like 1095. Mike at WilsonKnives does some awesome blades with these rasps as does TnMike with hawks. Real good "scrounged" material to work with. Most shoers just throw the rasps away when they get a little dull.
 
I have made knives from Heller files, and they seem as good as any other, however, as cheap as 1084,and 1095 is, why would you risk your time on an unknown steel type? Just curious, no criticism.
 
Rasp hawks and bowies are made mostly to show forging technique and ability.Saving the tooth pattern shows the ability to move only the metal desired,and not have to grind away a lot of extra.
Stacy
 
All well and good Stacy, but there were a couple of times I used old files that were to rusty to read and found out too late that they were case hardened. Not worth it to me.
 
Wouldn't the normalization process (as TNMike notes in a post above) take care of any case hardened issues?
 
Case haredning means that carbon is added to roughly .030 thickness of the surface of a low carbon steel. Thus forming a hard "case"
 
lrb, I was out at the equestian center with one of our horses and a ferrier who was doing some work there offered them to me after I said I used to make knives years ago. It was just a nice offer and I had hoped I coulc put them to use. If the info I got indicated it was'nt worth the time I would'nt bother. I'm trying to get back into making since I stopped about 25 years ago, so I'm sure the will just end up being practice anyhow.
I've also been looking at the ABS school as well as a few makers who offer lessons.
How did your Heller knives turn out?
 
As my day job main-stay is shoeing horses, there sure are a lot of differnt types of horse-rasp, Save Edge is my favrote and for a time, came with cards to a re-sharping service (possably dis proving them being case hardened?)

A case hardened rasp would throw some very long sparks with-out a like of fire-works, as W-1 or 1095 would put on more of a light show.

Just my .02cents worth, making something from nothing, or something that has been discarded is part of the old-world beuty!

here is a plemnary stump-test on a Save Edge "Beast" rasp.

15inchtest.jpg
 
johngalt, as best I recall the Heller files were fine. I probably used a half dozen, but this was ten or more years ago. Don't trust my memory, test one and see what you get.
 
LRB, Yes there are many that are not blade grade steel.That is why I prefer to use them for hawks.I insert a 1095 bit in the fold.
Stacy
 
CrowValleyForge said:
As my day job main-stay is shoeing horses, there sure are a lot of differnt types of horse-rasp, Save Edge is my favrote and for a time, came with cards to a re-sharping service (possably dis proving them being case hardened?)

A case hardened rasp would throw some very long sparks with-out a like of fire-works, as W-1 or 1095 would put on more of a light show.

Just my .02cents worth, making something from nothing, or something that has been discarded is part of the old-world beuty!

here is a plemnary stump-test on a Save Edge "Beast" rasp.

15inchtest.jpg
Click to expand...
I LOVE IT! ONE NASTY BASTERD OF A BOWIE! YOU DON'T HAVE TO WORRY ABOUT SCRATCHING THE FINISH!:thumbup: :D
 
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