What's this file used for?

[Tony]

So, I was helping clear out my late father in laws tools and came upon this one, I've a fair experience of files and rasps but this one has thrown me, hence me putting it out there for some of you knowledgeable dudes to educate me... Don't let me down It's about 16" long



Any thoughts?

 

[Dave Budd]

Its a float or rifler, for filing into recesses. I've not seen one that large before, so could've been user-made/modified from a flat file. Woodworkers might use one to clean out a mortice and metalworkers for the bottom of a keyway, for example. Its one of those tools that you rarely need, but when you do.....

 

[Tony]

Thanks Dave.

I can't picture it in my head though It's massive for those applications.... As you say, might have been made for a purpose....

 

[Dave Budd]

Here is a modern float for woodworking. I've used similar for broaching the mouth of hand planes (truing up and widening the opening of a wooden plane where the blade goes), but luthiers and the like use them too.
https://www.hand-stitched-rasp-riffler.com/en/planemakers-floats/47-ecouane-contre-coudee.html

This is a riffler for both metal and woodwork. In metal work it would be die making and toolmaking (tools for stamping and machine tooling, rather than things like axes) or finer versions for silverwork. In woodwork, it would be sculptural carving; though that could also be in wax, plaster, etc as well as wood. I made a spoon shaped riffler for somebody a while back to rasp out the inside of cups where the grain was too swirly to allow it to be carved cleanly with a gouge or hook.
https://www.wonkeedonkeetools.co.uk/files/what-are-rifflers/


there is a similar tool called a 'bread rasp', that is vaguely similar in that the toothed rasp is cranked underneath the handle rather than set below and forward like that one. A bread rasp is actually a kitchen tool, for removing the hard crust from the bottom of a loaf of bread baked in a stone/brick oven.

 

[Toddy]

I know that tool as a face float, Tony.
It's often just made on a straight handle, but that bent file kind was often a metalworking version.

I'm trying to find links to show, but they're a bit hit or miss. Benchhand joiners, carpenters and the like used them to get into awkward slots and tight spaces. Mortices and the like, or musical instrument makers.

Sometimes called a cranked rasp if it's really coarse, iirc.
It's the kind of tool that only someone who works with wood daily would buy. It's a good thing, very useful in just the right situation, but most folks wouldn't think to buy one or have need of it.

M

 

[demographic]

Looks like the kind of float that a patternmaker would find usefull.
Patternmakers as in the people who used to make the wooden patterns to form the sand molds used for metalcasting.
They also used long cranked paring chisels/gouges so a cranked float doesn't seem too much of a stretch.

Maybe.

Back in the day these people were very highly skilled indeed.

 

[Toddy]

Good point, and that might account for the size that Tony says his one is.

M

 

[Tony]

Yeah, I've got a Cranked planemaker Float and I get the offset on that and I know that this will likely be a similar tool, having the offset mid length is what throws me, usually rifflers etc have subtle changes in angle and if anything it's the ends of them that have a shape or angle change.

Something to think on though...

 

[Dave Budd]

i would think the bend mid length is because whoever made it needed to reach across a span before getting down into the spot to be filed

 

[demographic]

Oh and its worth noting that if you think you might be looking at a patternmakers tools, be carefull with the rulers.
As different metals have a different thermal expansion coefficient they have whats called shrinkage rulers.

Consequently they might look like imperial or metric but they will be ever so slightly oversize to account for that particjlar metals shrinkage and that foot of measurement will be a foot when the casting is finished and cooled.

Put those rulers alongside a normal one and you see they don't agree with each other.

 

[daveO]

 

[SimonL]

Shape wise, it reminds me of a tool used for metal bodyworking/panel beating.
Unfortunately I can't recall the proper name, but seem there's a distant memory of "shrinking" being in the name somewhere (or it might have been "stretching")
The idea of the teeth was to make the tool "grip" the metal whilst beating it over a former, so it wouldn't slide off the metal, the offset was in the tool to allow space for your fingers to stand off from the workpiece as you would use the tool to "slap" the workpiece (think forming a curve around say a headlight)
Really can't be sure, but that is where I have seen things of this size used for, I used to be a toolmaker, still posses a LOT of rifler files and they are significantly smaller.
Just an idea
Cheers
Simon

 

[Dave Budd]

i've just had a thought about it too, but can't tell from the pictures. Is the underside of the front section still toothed or is it smooth? I ask because the end of the file looks like it may have been ground sharp like a chisel, or more accurately a scraper. It could be a home made engineering scraper