Files and Rasps, what's the story?

[Sheffield Tony]

Hey, that looks rather like the "Aven Trimatool" I used as a teenager to shape the bodyfiller on my MK2 Escort ! And that was passed on to me by my grandad. No such thing as a new idea indeed.

 

[RogerP]

When I was a young teenager (I'm 71 now so work it out) one Christmas an uncle gave me the latest woodworking innovation - a Surform. I suppose they are the direct ancestor of these "new" Japanese carving files.

Quite different surely - these Japanese rasps are "normal" rasps, been around for centuries; the distinctive property of the surform is the hole through the body to release the waste.

The other one is more like a car body file than any surform:

http://www.carbodyfiles.co.uk/carbodyfiles/Pferd.html

BugBear

Yes, I agree, they're all different tools to do fairly similar jobs but in slightly different ways. It's the reversible handle idea on both the Surform and the turnip and their overall similarity - at first glance - that struck me.