I couldn't sleep last night, normally i'd be a bit annoyed by the 4am insomnia but this morning, whilst maybe half an hour into a seemingly endless scroll through Instagram I spotted a post from a friend (who's a luthier by trade and a fellow tool nerd) in which she praises the quality of rasps made by an Italian company called Corradi, I got curious and had a look at their website and it turns out they make a fair range of saw files too. I've been working my way through a stock of NOS Oberg and new Bacho's both of which I've found to be excellent but nonetheless I'm very keen to try these out. Have any of you guys had any experience with them? If so how did they compare with what you normally use? Cheers Matt
The Japanese micro rasps are super hard awesome for handles etc. I look for old stock, fine cabinetmakers' rasps or the new Auriou ones.
Obergs are excellent if you can get them, very smooth cutting, as are Bahco/Sandvik. It's just a case of continuity of supply.
There's a lady selling Obergs on ebay in the UK. Her grandfather was a saw doctor and ran his business from his house, he's recently passed away and she's been clearing his stuff, the old fella had been hoarding boxes of Oberg, Monniger and Stubbs files for decades, I managed to contact her off ebay and made a deal on a dozen boxes of 6 and 7 inch regular taper and a handfull of large 10" files, I'd liked to have had the lot but it woud have ran into thousands and i just couldn't afford it. I'm fairly sure Oberg and Bacho are identical, They seem to look, feel and last the same, even when comparing decades old Obergs too brand new Bachos.
People are getting a bit greedy with the NOS files, driven in part by our desperation to get them because the new ones are typically utter rubbish. Not uncommon to see NOS Nicholson's etc going for 20+ $ each. Be careful, been ripped off by a dealer has sold me a old Nicholson US box full of Nicholson made in Assholistan copies. I've got some old half "moon" stamp OBergs, they're very good and consistent but finely cut so they work smooth and slow. The company is extinct, rolled into the Bahco/Sandvik group I think. Their files are excellent, if you can get them. Made in Portugal?, like the old Tome ones.
Bacho are my go-to when i can't get Obergs, they're very similar, i guess the old recipe got handed down. I've had modern Nicholsons sold as old ones too, they went back for a refund after i used the first one. I've never tried the Tome Feteira files, well, not the saw files at least, i've a couple of big flat files of theirs knocking about that must be pretty good as i've had them for years. I think i'm just going to have to bite the bullet and put in an order for some Corradis, fingers crossed their saw files are as good as their rasps.