I just completed and mailed a gift box with a coopered walnut top finished with Tru Oil, a product for gunstocks, well known too in luthiery circles. It's a good finish, easy to apply and going from a shine to a sheen with steel wool and wax. Beginning another project with more complex curves I decided to model it in pine before committing to hardwoods. On a shelf sits a Mercury hoof rasp, 14 inches long and 1 3/4 wide, a gift from my wife's farrier. This is the Crocodile Dundee of rasps. It cuts nicely, not splintering, and should be good for the shaped sides.
There must be scores of examples of woodworking tools adapted from other trades. Anything you'd like to pass along?