"HELLER RACETRAK" Rasp

[lzenglish]

I have this big old Heller rasp, that is marked "RACETRAK", without the "C". I have searched for hours, and cannot find anything on it, even in the Heller catalog on the rose site. Does anyone have an old Heller catalog, and if so, tell me if this was a special made rasp for the horse race track? Any Info. appreciated.

Thanks,

Wayne

[scottg]

Yes of course it is.
 The racetrack pattern was a little thinner and lighter weight that a standard hoof rasp. Using one this much, they expected a little savings of weight was more than worth it.  I am pretty sure they cost a little extra too.
   yours Scott

[lbgradwell]

I spent a few minutes (well, more like 45 minutes) on Google and am surprised that the Heller name is still being used.

Heller was acquired by Simonds in 1955 and then Simonds was bought by a Norwegian-founded company named Mustad that somehow ended up being headquartered in Switzerland and is now producing Heller-branded rasps in Colombia!

The current version of your rasp seems to be called a "Red Tang" rasp...

http://store.purcellfarriersupply.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=25_79&products_id=248&zenid=33n32q90tgm0sc7u8amcqnf0g2

[lzenglish]

Thanks for your replies and info. guys! It is amazing to me, that this rasp has been sitting in my unsolved, back burner pile for a year, and I have spent many hours looking for info. such as date made, special purpose, etc. Today for some reason, I almost tripped over it, and decided to dig again. When I came up empty, I posted it for any help I could get from you. After I got the 2 kind responses, I still felt there was more to it, and hit the google search engine again for a few more hours. Finally, I got a hit! This "TRADE MARK"..."RACE-TRAK",(and that's all it is, as opposed to special purpose horse racing), was filed for by the Heller Brothers Company on Saturday, November 27th, 1948. The mark was used on files, rasps, hammers, tongs, clinchers, and pinchers. Its primary class was in the "yarns and threads for textile use", for some strange reason. The mark exired in 1992. So, I now have a time frame of after 1948, and before 1992, and that was one of the main things I wanted to know. Read all about it here:  http://www.trademarkia.com/race-trak-71569518.html

Thanks Again,

Wayne

[keykeeper]

I think you will find that the trademark is a combination of the often used "heller horse" logo.  Heller used the horse logo on most everything but there earliest tools, which were branded Heller Bros. Co. I have several Heller tools still, but sold a whole collection of the farrier tools some time ago. (Nippers, pullers, parers, knife, hammers, etc.)

[rusty]

> "yarns and threads for textile use", for some strange reason

The class numbers change over the years, I don't think trademarkia takes that into account, i have seen bizzare class names on old marks there before..

Oddly, the subclass is usually correct....go figure..