Rasps are more aggressive than files, and can shape wood fairly quickly. Files remove wood more slowly, and leave a smoother surface. They all come in a variety of lengths, cross section shapes and levels of coarseness. Used freehand, they are mainly used to shape wood into three dimensional shapes, like a cabriole leg or a chair back. Rasps are ‘stitched’, either by hand or by machine, to create the small individual cutting teeth. Hand stitched rasps are better, as they cut smoother and faster, but they are much more expensive. Wood rasps are the most aggressive general category of rasp, followed by cabinet rasps and patternmakers’ rasps. Within each of these categories are three levels: bastard (the roughest), second cut and smooth. When dealing with files the same levels are used to rate their level of coarseness. Shorter rasps and files tend to be less aggressive than longer versions.