Sharpening Rasps & Files

Al Breed replies: There are places that will refinish rasps and files, and they really do give them a new life. Other than that, always treat your files and rasps as you would any edge tool. Keep them from banging into each other, clean them with a wire brush or file card, and don’t spill your coffee on them – they will rust immediately and become useless.

I use a lot of files when I’m shaping legs, especially end grain and for fairing knee blocks to the legs. A good coarse fast-cutting file will make short work of the hardest mahogany and need only scraping to clean the surface up.