Thread: woods for scales

hey guys. What are some of the better woods for making scales. My family owns 2 sawmills and they cut pine, cedar, white and red oak among other things and was wanting to see if these are worth making scales from.

Hello!

My response is, sure!
However, my experience with most of them is little.

Your best audience here might be found in the 'restoration' area. We discuss the pro's and con's of certain materials used in scales quite often.

C utz

the pine may be a bit too fragile when cut thin to use as scales unless you put a liner in there.

the oaks would be fine. especially if they ever get some burls from the oaks...yank up the roots or cut off the nobin warts that grow...then you'll have some purdy woods.


anything will work as long as you like it and its sturdy enough to hold together and not crack/break when you use it

remember, scale blanks are small and specific ..usually somewhere in the order of 6 1/4 x 1 1/4 x 1/8 .... most of the saws they use in the mills are prolly thicker then 1/8inch so you would be saw-dusting away 2 out of every possible 3 pieces. but hey they got a bunch of wood, so no worries!!

~J

cedars,both red white and Lebanese are usually too soft unless they have been stabilized oaks are excellent
Kind regards Peter

Cedars are good for lining razor boxes though. The wood soaks up moisture.

thanks for the input guys, appreciate it.