Recommend tool to shape stock

[MI MAN]

I am currently working on a rifle kit. After fitting the butt plate, I noticed I am going to need to remove wood. This job is going to take more than sand paper. Could someone please recommend a rasp tool (make/manufacture) that will be productive and allow maintaining the stock contour?

 

[user 34300]

For heavy removal I use a hoof rasp. For lesser work I have an expensive hand stitched rasp. For fine tuning I like a spoke shave. For the final I use scrapers.

A cabinet maker's wood rasp is a good general purpose tool. The old Nicolson #49 was great but the new ones are poor.

 

[MI MAN]

Thanks, I will look into this.

 

[Sidney Smith]

A sanding block and 60 or 80 grit paper. You'd be surprised how much material you can remove using course paper and a block.

 

[tallpine]

A sanding block and 60 or 80 grit paper. You'd be surprised how much material you can remove using course paper and a block.

This is what I use. I buy the stick on type in 60 grit. Stick it on a piece of 1/8 flat bar, cuts like a new rasp. you can also stick it on various size round dowels for shaping radius. Old knife makers trick.

 

[MI MAN]

Excellent, thanks

 

[longcruise]

I go to 36 grit to move a lot of wood. Also the farriers rasp. Understand that the farriers rasp will cut deep grooves so you want to switch to something else before its too late! Shureform tools can be useful too. The way I do this is more about the tools in my stable than what YOUR best choices might be.

 

[Flint62Smoothie]

Farriers rasp then scrapers, no sandpaper touches any of my handmade firelocks!

 

[LawrenceA]

I have heard good things about the Shinto Rasp. Waiting for mine to arrive

 

[Sidney Smith]

Farriers rasp then scrapers, no sandpaper touches any of my handmade firelocks!

So how do you a smooth finish without using sandpaper? Gasps and scrapers can not make a smooth surface.

 

[fento]

Thanks, I will look into this.

Break a pane of glass and you will have scrapers of all shapes. My dad showed me that 79=0 odd years ago and his Dad used it before him. apparently it was common among wood carvers back then. I have never cut myself with glass and i don't think Dad did either

 

[Grenadier1758]

The Shinto rasp is good, but can leave a rough surface. I bought the Iwasaki 200 mm flat file and a round file. These shave off the wood and leave a smooth surface.

Iwasaki Wood Files

 

[user 34300]

So how do you a smooth finish without using sandpaper? Rasps and scrapers can not make a smooth surface.

Sandpaper is a modern invetnion. It was not used on original guns.

They used scrapers. They then sometimes burnished the wood. They had shark skin and horsetail sedges. Mostly they scraped carefully. A propelry prepared scraper leaves a very smooth surface.

 

[toadboy65]

Sandpaper is a modern invetnion. It was not used on original guns.

They used scrapers. They then sometimes burnished the wood. They had shark skin and horsetail sedges. Mostly they scraped carefully. A propelry prepared scraper leaves a very smooth surface.

John Stalker and George Parker, in A treatise of Japaning and Varnishing (1688) recommended the use of "glass-paper" for smoothing wood, which was crushed glass or quartz bonded to paper or cloth.

John Nicholson, in The Operative Mechanic And British Machinist (1825) page 641:

"[t]he surface of the work [must] be carefully rubbed down with sand-paper."

 

[user 34300]

Sandpaper as we know it today is a 20 th century thing.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sandpaper
3m.com/3M/en_US/company-us/about-3m/history/timeline/
woodworkinghistory.com/glossary_sandpaper.htm

Add the https and www to the links. This forum is extremely frustraing about allowing links.

 

[user 34300]

nm

 

[Darkhorse]

I have a lot of experience using farrier rasps. Most of the horses survived.

I don't much care for using those rasps on wood as they can break out big chunks of wood, cause splits, and ruin a good piece of wood. If I do use one on a rifle I will only use an old one with a lot of wear on it. The newer ones seem to want to grab the wood too much.
I would rather use a rasp to remove wood and shape a stock. There are a lot of rasps out there, check some of these out.
https://www.woodcraft.com/search?q=rasps&button=search

 

[user 34300]

I have two hoof rasps, both bought new. One is a monster an one is smaller. I have only used them on maple. Walnut is easy to shape with a spoke shave. On maple I have experienced no issues. A hoof rasp is a rouging tool. So instead of bandsawing off the area around the cheek piece I use the big old rasp. I put tape on the end to protect my left and from cuts. I run them in a draw filing motion, mostly. I imagine if you tried pushing it lengthwise across the grain it would make a mess. The smooth file like side defineately does not tear anything.

I'd love to have a drawer full of $130 hand stitched rasps but I can not justify the cost. You can buy hoof rasps reasonably a the feed store. I would not mess with old dull ones.

The Iwasaki reasp do cut fast. I have four. I find them to be grabby. The cutting teeth are very thin making the rasp prone to jam in to the wood if you press too hard. Put tape over the end to prevent cutting your left hand.

 

[longcruise]

My farriers rasp is old and deemed worn out when I acquired it. It's not been used much on gun stocks. I bought it for rough shaping risers on glass/wood laminated bows. It gets used a lot and has never been problematic in any way. It needs to be used with care and you gotta know when to stop.

 

[user 34300]

I just used my big farrier's rasp on the end grain of a fore arm tip. It cut perfect thin shavings with almost no effort. It is almost new and I baby it to preserve the as new sharpness. I agree it is about experience. If I had taken a single cut on the off side of the end grain it would have split out.