Turn a Farrier's Rasp Into a Knife! - Pops Knife-Making Project of the Month 

At 81 now this video takes me way back to 1952 my dad decided it was time I had my own fixed blade . So we went out to my seen uncle's ranch he had barrels of old files he and both grandfathers had collected over the years. Then he went to the old forge this was the first time I had ever seen it working .Then after awhile he had annealed it. Then back home we went to the grinder I did all the rough grinding had a wood bucket full of water and grind I did seemed like forever then dad shaped it. The leather handle was made of both boot and belt leather both bolsters were aluminum it turned out fantastic it has what is known today as the scandi grind I was not around when dad heat treated it I was out hunting I carry this knife every day since the day it was made it has been all over the world . I also made a new sheath about 7 years ago . Thanks for awakening old memories. Happy Trails

I've made several knives from farrier's rasps because I have lots of access to used ones. A few tips: 1: There are a lot of case-hardened farrier's rasps out there, and you can't go by brand name. I test each one by cutting the tang off, heating it and quenching in water. Then I put it in a vise and hit it with a hammer (using eye protection of course). If it snaps off cleanly, it's good steel. If it bends at all, it's probably case-hardened and won't make a good knife (though it will make a nice wrapped tomahawk body if you forge weld in a high carbon bit!). 2: If you don't want to chew through grinder belts to reduce the burrs, you can lightly hammer them down while the rasp is hot before annealing. Just make sure you verify the steel is straight again when you are done. You get a more fish-scale-looking pattern from them if you hammer vs. grind. 3: Powdered graphite works great for blackening epoxy and you can buy it cheap by the quart on amazon.

Best message: knife making should be fun. Especially if you’re a hobbyist.

Now that's a knife you won't be afraid to abuse! File steel is good stuff, even if it is a mystery. I made a knife out of a chisel once. It had a nice taper to it so I kept that. I quenched in water, which I don't recommend due to how aggressive it is at cooling the steel. I coated it in fireplace brick mortar before quenching, such that it had a progressively thinner coat toward the edge of the knife. This gave me a nice hamon. For a handle, I happened to find a shed whitetail antler that week so I just used that.

True I did enjoy making a knife from a file

I really like how you do both types of knife making, stock removal and forging.

You're the man Mr Sorrells! I'll need to pick some of these up!

This turned out looking amazing! I am definitely going to get some rasps from pops to do some knives

Very cool...

Whoa, those rasps from Pops are a steal! I know what I'm doing this summer.

I got started back in 2009 with files. I still try to use them from time to time.

Great tips also your mower tire is flat 😂

THANK YOU 🌲

My first knife was made from a miter saw blade. It rides in my tackle box for the various needs encountered when fishing. I had a blast making it and learned a lot from the project. Great video once again!!!

Sir, definitely cool. Thank you

Thank you

Think I’m gonna give this a go

Old USA files and farriers rasps make great blades, good high carbon steel. Great thing about big rasps is you have a big canvas to make so many different shapes/styles, they're super fun. One thing though, my teacher told me, and i found he was right, you dont want to make kitchen/steak knives from old files because you can really taste the old steel.

Well done Sir. love it very much. I'll tell ya, I did one when I was about 15 yrs old but it looked nothing like yours! Lol!

Very nice. Thank you for sharing

just a tip i think is a time saver, at least i find it easier- after sanding the scales flat, tape the flat sides and tang and glue em together (scale flats together, tang on top). use the predrilled holes in the tang to drill through the handle and trace the tang to cut off excess handle material. remove the knife and finish the fronts completely, then take the scales apart, glue it up, and do the shaping and finishing after the glue sets. that way both scales are always the same, the fronts are perfectly symmetrical, and the pins will always line up. works awesome and is what i do for every full tang knife.

Good work as always Sir 👏

Wow that good ❤

Awesome work

Nice, thanks for sharing!

For annealing things and cooling down steel slowly i use good old bucket of sand -most of it will do but i found out best one to use is one for fireplace repairs .it absorbs heat and releases it slowly and its fine grit.

god i miss watching you when i was younger. still yet to make my first knife though but this would probably be the way id do it

Awesome knife!

Amazing!! Love the file pattern on the blade.

Nice! I love repurposing tools. Something enchanting to me to breathe new life into something found or well used beyond it's prime. I'm making a big lad from an old & long derelict Heller farriers file this week! One of the few times I've seen both sides being file pattern.

Good stuff. I think you did actually cut those handle scales with the grain, but rather you cut them across the growth rings. When the growth rings are oriented perpendicular to the width of the board like that, the piece is cut in "quartersawn" fashion. This is still pretty strong as long as the board/handle scale isn't too thin. In addition to the nice fine stripes that quartersawn milling will show you on the faces of bards, it also prevents those uncomely cathedrals of grain that you often see on large panels of flatsawn boards or plywood.

Use the metal files, case hardened rasps are softer steel sometimes

Nice video. Easily got our thumbs up

Thanks for sharing

It's amazing

that is a wonderful knife. I rarely buy or make knifes I won't use . it's like buying a 70,000 dollar 4x4 but scared to get it dirty. Papa

Thanks for the info.

I was just thinking about turning a file into a knife in this video popped up

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a ring in the end and a round guard would make it a nice idea.

This is the most practical knife making video I have seen on RU-vid, and I have watched a lot of them. All I want from a knife is a sharp, durable edge. Years ago I spent over 15 years as a machinist, and certainly have the skills to make steel take the shape I want, but never did any heat treating in our shop. Anything that needed heat treating was sent out. Your explanation of the necessary heat treating is outstanding.

cost of making is greater than cost of knive.its clear that by readymade stuff

hello Mr. Sorrells, 2 days ago I saw a guy here in RU-vid that was talking about making a knife with a farrier, the guy was testing the steel and then said that the farrier's steel never gets quenched so he said that steel doesn't works for the knife making...try to check it out...if you can do it, why he didn't? 🤔🤷🏻‍♂️

I absolutely love your work! You the man Walter!

You know Walter I have followed you for many years Just recently I had a videographer come into my shop and film me while I was working on a blade. He did the film for free because he has a channel that teaches how to photograph and video in different light and environments, I really got a chuckle when he walked in the door and I handed him a set of ear plugs and safety glasses. I told him look, I barely know you and I don't want you getting hurt right off the bat.The funny thing was, he accidently took his ear plugs out before I shut everything down and said damn I didn't know it was that loud. thought I'd share have a good day

I used to make a lot of knives from files and farrier's rasps. You can pretty much grind them into blades, if you don't want to forge. but you have to make sure it is a solid high-carbon-steel file or rasp. Many of the newer ones -not made in USA- are case hardened mild steel. Now in theory you could carbonize them by leaving them in a deep, air-starved charcoal fire for a while. Japanese swordsmiths used to carbonize steel that way. But you might have to ask a Japanese how long to leave it in the fire. A metallurgist could probably tell you, or you might find it on the Internet-how long does it take for carbon atoms to diffuse 1/16" into steel at 1500 or 1600 dgrees?

I've been told by watching different blacksmiths. That each file is made differently there's different hardnesses through and through outer edge somersoft summer hard I've never made one I would like you all's opinion

Have you ever tried to leave some of the rasp untouched?

Fun and informative! Thanks for sharing your time and talent! KANSAS

Walter - the 80's Hacker Movies called - and they want thier music back. Love the video as always.

you can soak in vinegar also to remove scale

I have seen videos of people turning files into knives but this one's a specialty, to me at least.

trash? that looks like a perfectly good rasp to me!

Big fan of your work. I got a good buddy that makes pristine knives. Absolutely love the craft of the.. the work , sweat and blood. From every Imperfection to perfect polish blades. It's the love of the art. My buddies is kpaws knives Jason Kishpaugh. Check out his work and please tell Jim Steve sent ya

Always have liked file knives, railroad spike knives & the like. Love the dementual look of the file. Do you make your own sheaths? Great enjoyable video! Thanx, J

What kind of steel is it? Because if it is too brittle it's not gonna work. Or if it's not hard enough...

I made my first knife from a file. It looks like crap, but it slices right through a tomato. It took about 10 more knives to get sorta good at cutting the bevel.

I have a 16" farrier's rasp that I have been saving. I'm thinking a heavy duty bowie.

hiya dude i need some advice on making my own makers mark and love your guides

If it's going to be a true camp knife (actual use not wall hanger) and it was for me...I would like to leave some of that file/rasp part on there. Camp site cheese grater or hashbrown maker.

Just a quick note -if you wanna make a knife out of old file not all of them quench in oil.Newer files (how much newer?-who knows?)are quenched in brine -which is a 10-12% solution of regular good old kitchen salt in water.

Not sure what type of steel is used to make files. I do know they are hard and able to file common types of iron and steel before they themselves wear down. I would guess that the steel is of high carbon and heat treated to obtain the desired hardness. I myself have fashioned crude knives from industrial saw blades that have been discarded because the teeth have smoothed out. I would suggest that if using such saw blades, care is taken to grind them to the design you want. When they turn red, the heat treatment to obtain the original hardness and toughness, may be compromised. If you change the molecular structure, you may soften it or even make it more brittle.

Got a handful of worn out farrier's rasps from the guy shoeing at a stable my daughter keeps her horse. Was wondering what to do with 'em.....

Very cool knife! Great use of spare materials, also good advice on the process you used.

I didn’t see this knife available yet on your website. Am I missing something?

do you have tutorial video for deep sori katana ?i cant wait to watch it

Farriers get through loads of rasps in a year, will probably be able to sell at good price used

Bare fact knife thank you sir

How much?? For a knife like this please and thank you

The large majority of wood rasps are case hardened low carbon steel.

Looks like a carving knife. What about working on a file without the heat treatment.? Just tempering in the oven. I would have gone with the more common to obtain bastard file.

I must be getting something wrong. that wenge still looks like you did a rip cut, not a cross cut as you say. Did you mean rift sawn cut? or am I missing something?

Looks like you have a flat on your riding mower.

Hello. How much is this knife? Tky

I've discovered that not all rasps are created equal. Some are easier to harden than others. Nice knife, though!

Made one in 1986

So as a follow-up to a conversation with another fellow who claims he is never able to get a rasp knife fully hard, i went and tested several of the in-progress knives I recently made from rasps. The test was using Japanese hardness files. I was confident they would test well, because after quench, they all skated a file nicely and then went into tempering at 400. So I expect them to be in the 58-59 range HRC. It should be noted that before making anything out of a rasp, I test each one by cutting the tang off, heating it and quenching in water. Then I put it in a vise and hit it with a hammer (using eye protection of course). If it snaps off cleanly, it's good steel. So with the file test on some blades awaiting handles, Lo and behold, the first one i checked came back so soft that a 45 HRC file scratched it! That one was quenched in AAA. I checked two others that were quenched in Parks 50, and similar result! I was baffled and not a little bit dismayed. WTF?!?! So I picked one that I considered disposable and decided to do some destructive testing on it. I ground into it a bit and file-checked it, and sure enough, it tested hard. I repeated the process and same result, getting it to skate a 55, but not a 60 file. So I took one of the better ones and did a decent amount of finish grinding on the bevel and it too came up hard. Bottom line is that they de-carbed in the process of annealing and heat treating. I've had decarb before, but usually super thin. Turns out these de-carb fairly deep. Final result: the knives are all hard, but there is significant surface decarburization. Also, the ones quenched in AAA were not quite as hard as the ones in Parks 50, the latter of which tested out just barely skating the 60 file. Also, the one I did the destructive testing on got put in a vise and whacked with a hammer. Clean snap and lovely grain structure underneath. So, if you pre-test your rasp and determine it to be good steel but are coming up soft in the end, try grinding off more surface. Or dont - who cares if the surface of the blade is soft as long as the edge is hard. You may just have to take the edge down below the surface. From now on, I plan to grind these less before heat treatment and leave more meat to remove after, while also planning to set the cutting edge a good mm or two from the exposed surface.

👍🏽👍🏽👍🏽♥️♥️♥️🇮🇩

A cyber-knife.

Напильник для дерева, это не напильник для металла. Разные стали!

Got to see Joey grind a chef's knife at Tannehill this year, y'all should think about promoting that more, maybe bring in some fresh blood

For anyone wanting to skip purchasing a CA accelerant, mix borax in water into a misting bottle. You're welcome.

Are you a clemson fan... 1 2 3 4

Walt... Love ya ta death brother, but that rasp better be a dollar rasp, can't see using a Nicholson for knife making less it be so far beyond obselete gone!

Waltuh

Can you get on with it Stop nattring so much Iam board man

Can I buy one

That’s what you need, a knife where the food gets stuck and hard to wash of. A really filthy knife in your Kitchen

looks cheap

This looks great but probably a bitch to clean as a functional knife

Wow that good ❤

I think that file knives are beautiful because they have a character to them

Price for this knife

I have a farriers rhasp that I was planning to use for a blacksmithing project to make a knife. Is it a good option for a starting point with a forge? Or are they strictly good for material removal knives?

Files knives are really cool, a great way to learn and experiment. I used some Wenge wood a while ago and it was really cool! Looked great. I always get nervous while work8ng with it. I have had a lot of people warn me about respiratory infections from it.

Fantastic knife👍🏾