Yes, another brush. This one wasn’t on my list initially. When Mattias Hallin visited our shop this year, he brought some lovely small gifts. One of them was this incredible brush from REMOS.
The natural bristles are remarkably stiff and stout. Mattias explained that he uses this brush to clear his rasps of debris.
For years I’ve used a file card to clean my rasps. One side had stiff-ish natural bristles. The other side had stiff steel bristles. Mostly I used the side with the natural bristles. But it could never get all the sawdust out of the teeth. And eventually I would use (with a wince) the metal-bristled side to finish the cleaning job.
I don’t know if the metal bristles hurt the steel teeth of my rasps. But I didn’t want to find out.
The REMOS brush is incredible. It quickly cleans out the crevices under the rasp’s teeth without complaint. It is about 100-percent better than my old file card.
Thanks Mattias. This tool is a winner.
— Christopher Schwarz
To read previous entries in the gift guide, click here.
I bought a Nicholson file cleaner from Highland Woodworking last month. (It comes pre-personalized for me!) In their description it says “The steel bristles should not be used for cleaning high quality rasps.” I think that’s the first time I’ve read that. Rings true, though, as your wincing demonstrates.
A great way to really clean rasps is to soak them overnight in vinegar then brush them. It does discolor them a little but functionally they are like new.
It appears that Manufactum does not ship to the USA (maybe I missed something). You can buy through Amazon (search Remos brush) but make sure you order the natural fiber version (defaults to nylon). Says it ships from the manufacturer ($21 including shipping).
Manufactum used to ship to the U.S. Anyway, the brush is widely available if you use the Google machine.
You are most welcome, Chris – I am delighted to hear that you like the brush!
For anyone who might be interested, and who didn’t spot my spoiler (boo! hiss!) of this post in the comments to the nail brush post from two weeks ago, I’ll mention again that in addition to the stiff Handwerkerbürste, I’ve also found that the softer hog bristle Ärtzebürste from the same brand makes for a top notch rasp woobie to apply camellia oil (or whatever oil is your druthers) before putting the cleaned-up tool away. It doesn’t get saturated with oil like a regular woobie does, so each time I have to apply a few drops of oil to the rasp and then spread it out, but the bristles doesn’t tear on the teeth like a regular woobie would, and are just about the right length and stiffness to get into every nook and cranny around those teeth.
(And now I just have to hope that this isn’t another spoiler.)
Totally agree on not using a steel wire brush, but I’d think a brass one would be OK. I use them along with a brass wire wheel on my 6″ grinder all the time for removing dried stuff on tools and they don’t remove the base steel. But I haven’t tried them on a rasp – just have been using a stiff bristle brush.
I’m going to walk back my comment about a brass brush. Tools for Working Wood has similar rasps and their description says not metal at all and they have a smaller brush that has longer bristles. The one you recommend does look a bit better and I have seen a similar one (Craftsman’s Brush) on “The Best Brushes” website.
I feel you. I used to fret over the steel bristles scrubbing the edges off my expensive rasps and files. However, the steel used for brushes is made of softer stuff. Still, I don’t trust them either.
So that you know, to clean my files and rasps, I would often use a brass brush, NOT a steel brush. Somewhere out on the ‘net is a page or two on machinists’ and mechanics’ sites where they advised the use of brass brushes to clean different surfaces on metal, especially steel, tools.
I even use a brass brush to clean my bits and blades.