A rasp is a coarse form of file used for shaping wood, metal or other material. Typically a hand tool, it consists of a generally tapered rectangular, round or half-round bar of case-hardened steel with distinct, individually cut teeth, coarser and more separated than an ordinary file's, so it removes material faster at the cost of a rougher surface. A narrow, pointed tang is common at one end, onto which a handle can be fitted.
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Introduced When (Circa)Not established by the cited source.
Rasp (Wikipedia) describes tooth types, uses and the hand-cut versus machine-made distinction but gives no date or era for when the rasp was introduced; checked fresh 2026-09-17 against the raw article extract. OriginA rasp is distinguished from an ordinary file by its individually cut teeth rather than rows of parallel grooves; a hand-cut rasp remains a premium carving tool because the natural variation in its tooth spacing avoids the uniform tramline marks that machine-stamped teeth leave in a row. 1 Sources
1. Rasp (Wikipedia)
Wikimedia FoundationUses sectionQuote, Uses section
A hand-cut rasp is still a premium tool for carving work, as the slight variation in tooth spacing avoids this 'tramline' effect and so they are still available, at a price.
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