Know someone with a bandsaw?  If so, ask for their broken saw blades.   Why?   By snapping that broken blade in to pieces about 12" long, taping the ends together,and alternate the teeth as you go, you can build a nice rasp.    It can be as wide or narrow as you like/need.   Coarseness depends on the tooth count of the blade used

 

Same idea as the Japanese Shinto Saw Rasp only much less expensive. 

 

http://www.japanwoodworker.com/dept.asp?s=JapanWoodworker&dept_id=12881

 

 

Just can't see throwing out a blade with good teeth still on it. One could even make a "float" to use to refine the mouths of wooden planes.

A float is just a wat to smooth the bed paer o make a plane iron fit better.    Depending on how many blades one stacks together, it can be a narrow file/rasp (1/8" or less) or a wide (1" pr more) file/rasp.   While one can saw and chisel the grooves, a float file can smooth the area out nicely.

 

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'and may the road raise up to meet ye'

   You can also use these "rasps" in other spaces that a normal rasp could not reach into.     Say you have a groove that needs some smoothing out along it's bottom.   Just fit together enough blades to fit in the groove, and a few swipes back and forth, the bottom is now flat and smooth.   You can make a fine toothed one wide as the tenons you would be making.  A few swipes to fine tune the tenon to size.    A rabbet or  a dado can also be cleaned up using a "rasp" made this way.  Right now, I've got five blades hanging on the shop wall, they are the wrong size for the two bandsaws I have now.   I think I MIGHT just cut them up to make a rasp, or two....

 

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'and may the road raise up to meet ye'

Recently I made a flag case and cut the groove for the glass before I had the glass in hand.  My supplier switched his supplier and the glass was just a shade too wide so I had to widen the groove.  Four hacksaw blades worked perfectly.  Not an easy task but I salvaged the case.

 

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Ron Dudelston
Above and Beyond WoodWorks