I could deal with fragile if someone would promise wicked sharp. I would love to cut my fingers again on a new rasp
Michael, Might your fingers /hands be more calloused than they were ,last time you cut them on a new rasp? Ray
I was considering how I rasp feet as my son Jess and I were doing the 14 horses Friday, 4 1/2 shoeings, 9 1/2 trims. When trimming to go barefoot, I nip at an angle, run the rasp around that angled edge which gives the finished rolled edge and takes off the outer nipper marks leaving just a lick or two on the bottom. If I got the bottom smooth first, I would have to still remove the edge to round it off, having to rasp the same part twice. For a shod foot I'll trim to the surface I want with the nips, sometimes having to take off a bit more here or there with them. With the rasp side, I'll just hit the worst of my nipper marks and maybe hit a high spot, but I don't try to get a foot perfect as though it would be shod cold. The hot shoe gets the rest just right. The Beast rasp has about 39.1 sq. in. compared to the 24.5 sq. in. of a standard rasp, which gives more than half again as much surface to work with. So that's why I get as much use out of one as I do, that, and all the years of having to feed 13 kids before I got to splurge on a new rasp, old habits being hard to break. Pictures of the Beast finish on a hoof coming Tuesday or Wednesday, as the girl is in photo class with the new camera. If Bolota comes out with a longer, wired rasp, I'll sure try it, I liked their rasps the best when I used the small ones.
It's the clenching rasp that causes me to change, %90 of what I do has shoes on, if I shoe 9 then probably I only have one unshod.... I like a smart finish on the top side of the foot so the rasp catches the metal a lot, as it dulls you hit the metal harder as you use more pressure, I use save edge at the min, they have a wider tooth on the smooth side that helps with finish. If it has the pyramid tooth then it leaves lines.