{"id":617,"date":"2010-02-07T14:43:39","date_gmt":"2010-02-07T19:43:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rpwoodwork.com\/blog\/?p=617"},"modified":"2010-02-08T19:30:05","modified_gmt":"2010-02-09T00:30:05","slug":"cleaning-auriou-rasps","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rpwoodwork.com\/blog\/2010\/02\/07\/cleaning-auriou-rasps\/","title":{"rendered":"Cleaning Auriou rasps"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Rasps<\/strong> seem to be under-appreciated in the woodworking world. They have a somewhat medieval appearance, lacking the outward elegance of a fine spokeshave. Some of us have had unpleasant experiences with cheap rasps that may have lead to the erroneous conclusion that this genre of tool is good for nothing more than hacking at the corners of a home DIY plywood project.<\/p>\n

Au contraire<\/strong>, the hand cut rasps<\/strong> made in France by Michel Auriou<\/a> and his small group of highly skilled craftsmen are magnificent tools capable of bringing the finest sensitivity to shaping wood.\u00a0They must, of course, be well cared for, and this includes cleaning<\/strong>. The cove-like teeth will naturally clog as have the #9 and #13 grain rasps (left and right, below)<\/strong> while shaping mahogany. There are two stages to cleaning them.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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The Tools for Working Wood<\/a> catalog transmits Michel\u2019s advice to clean the rasps with a natural bristle brush<\/strong> since any metal brush, even brass, will eventually dull the teeth. I use and like the small natural hog brush sold by TFWW<\/a>. I angle the bristles of this little brush toward the coves of the teeth and use vigorous circular and side-to-side motions to get the rasps adequately clean during a work session,\u00a0as seen below. However, this does not completely remove the embedded wood<\/strong>, especially in the finer rasps. I do not want to repeatedly store them in this condition since eventually more teeth will become clogged, reducing the effectiveness of the tool.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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\u00a0A close up view of the #13:\u00a0<\/p>\n

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Here\u2019s my solution. I get several drops of CMT 2050<\/strong> (widely available at woodworking suppliers) on the rasp, spread it with my finger, and half a minute later brush it with the hog bristle brush. Voila!<\/strong> The previously stubborn embedded wood easily disappears<\/strong> and, after patting them dry as necessary, the clean rasps\u00a0(bottom photo) are ready to be put away and await their next duties in perfectly ready shape.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n

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CMT 2050<\/a> is a non-toxic solution<\/strong> with a pH of 9.5-10.5 (MSDS)<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0rust preventive<\/strong> properties. No rinsing is required. After using this method on Auriou and Nicholson rasps for at least a year, I have not found any rusting or undue dulling<\/strong>. Since I would not want to suggest to my readers a method that\u00a0might\u00a0do any harm to these valuable tools, I checked with Michel Auriou to see if this method was safe for his rasps. He graciously answered my inquiry and stated “I think there is no risk to the use of that product.” Knowing the excellence<\/a> of his tools and having had the awe-inspiring experience of watching Michel stitch (cut) the teeth on a rasp at a Lie-Nielsen Hand Tool Event a few years ago, I will take the advice of this superb craftsman.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Rasps seem to be under-appreciated in the woodworking world. They have a somewhat medieval appearance, lacking the outward elegance of a fine spokeshave. Some of us have had unpleasant experiences with cheap rasps that may have lead to the erroneous conclusion that this genre of tool is good for nothing more than hacking at the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-617","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-tools-and-shop"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rpwoodwork.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/617","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rpwoodwork.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rpwoodwork.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rpwoodwork.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rpwoodwork.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=617"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/www.rpwoodwork.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/617\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":636,"href":"https:\/\/www.rpwoodwork.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/617\/revisions\/636"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rpwoodwork.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=617"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rpwoodwork.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=617"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rpwoodwork.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=617"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}