Thread: Wood stock thinkness?

Just curious, for a normal sized 5/8 or 6/8 blade, what size wood stock do you begin with. Do you generally buy something 1 or 2 inches thick, and cut sheets, or buy finish stock at 1/8" to begin with? thx - John

I look for minumum dimensions of 10mm x 30mm x 180mm

I find that leaves me enough room for mistakes & if Im REALLY careful I can get a pair of scales from the single piece.

I buy 3x24x0.125 project wood from Lee Valley http://www.leevalley.com/wood/page.a...at=1,250,43217 It's good to have one in town

1/8" thick is my almost ideal thickness to work with.

I start with a tree, cut a 14 inch long log, cut that longitudinally down the center (both cuts with a chainsaw), remove the bark with a drawknife, use a handheld electric planer to rough flatten the two halves of the log, mill 1 inch boards from the log, paint the end grain to ensure even drying, stack and sticker the boards, then wait for 6 to 8 months.

When shop dry, the rough boards are jointed (one edge, one side) and resawn on a bandsaw to 1/8 inch (3/32 if I'm lining the scales with copper or brass).

A single stick of potential firewood makes A LOT of razor scales.

Just another data point,
Ed

I'm partial to 5/32 thick. It gives me plenty of room for error (or warping wood) correction, plus I can put a nice radius on the wood when forming the scales.

Thanks all, that helps. - John