sharpening rasps.

[bigbob2]

While back someone posted about using vinegar to repoint rasps, so gave it a try.I whacked a few rasps and files in a bath of white vinegar and left them for close to a week. They came up near good as new. What a great result!

[Buemaker]

Interesting. Was it undiluted ordinary household vinegar?
There is a place on the net which say, a hundred ways to use vinegar, they missed sharpening rasps though.  

[scrub-buster]

I tried the vinegar soak on some rusty rasps for a few days and didn't get very good results.  It removed some of the rust but not all of it.  Maybe I should have let them soak longer.   Last week I made an electrolysis tank for removing rust and cleaning old steel.  I didn't get any before pictures of the rasp but it was covered in rust.  Here it is after a 3 hour soak.

 

 

[bigbob2]

Mine were rusty where the backs were out of the vinegar but wire brush got rid of most of that. The main thing is the teeth were quite sharp again.I only used plain household vinegar.They were quite blunt from rasping fiberglass before.