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Overheard a new farrier say they only use a rasp for touch-ups now
I was grabbing coffee before a job in Bozeman and heard a young guy at the next table talking to a friend. He said he'd just bought a $400 electric finishing tool and only uses his hand rasp for 'maybe five minutes' on a shoe. It made me think about how my old mentor, Frank, would spend half an hour just on the finish with his favorite 12-inch rasp. I guess the trade keeps moving, but I still like the feel of a good hand file. Does anyone still do a full finish by hand, or is that just me being old?
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casey6825d ago
Frank would roll in his grave hearing that. The problem with those electric tools is they let you get sloppy fast if you don't have the basics down first. Saw a guy last year who relied on his buffer so much he couldn't level a hoof by hand to save his life. You gotta be able to do the full job with a rasp before you touch a power tool, otherwise you're just covering up bad work. What's the rush anyway, a good hand finish builds patience and shows you actually care about the craft.
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Honestly used to think those electric tools were just for lazy farriers. Then I watched a demo at a clinic last fall and the finish was actually really clean. Still keep my old rasp in the truck though, because sometimes you just need that quiet hand work.
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young.nora5d ago
My farrier was telling me last month about a study from the University of Guelph that looked at hoof stress with different tools. @daniel_martin, it made me see how those electric files can actually be more gentle if you're trained right. I guess it's less about being lazy and more about having the right tool for the job, you know?
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