Thread: Piece of wood for scales, need suggestions

I was allowed to pick some wood from our local timber yard's skip and came home with this:



It is a piece of brownheart, I especially like the green streaks.

It is 27 mm thick, for scales I need a piece that is a only few mm thick. Any thoughts on how to do this?

For scales your wood needs to be no more than 3 mm (1/8') thick to allow for sanding, etc. The best way would be to plane the wood if you have access to a planer. If not you might try ripping it with a band saw but keep in mind there will be some saw (teeth) marks that will need to be sanded out. I've used both methods and both work just fine.

I would rip a 2.5cm piece about 18cm long and then resaw that in 3mm slabs. You will have to do some sanding.
Get the slabs the same thickness and as uniform as you can.
Then proceed to the normal scale making procedure of pin holes and shaping to the blade.

What kind of wedge material are you going to use?

Not sure what I am gonna use for a wedge. Haven't given it much thought yet.

Just a thought if you are up to it...you could made an integral set of scales out of that piece, similar to what Mastro Livi uses on his entry level razors.

Originally Posted by Ernie1980

Just a thought if you are up to it...you could made an integral set of scales out of that piece, similar to what Mastro Livi uses on his entry level razors.

Good idea.

you also need to make sure you miss the cracks in the wood for your scales
you could hand cut some scales if need be with a saw and they will work
the integral scales might be a great idea for the size wood you have
is it a hard or soft wood?? as it looks a lot like Miranti pine which is a medium wood at best and would need a sealing agent

It is part of a floorboard with a groove on one side and a tongue on the other. I has a few cracks but still plenty usable wood between the cracks.

I would start with blanks that are about 160 x 60mm and either get them ripped into 4mm slabs by someone with a band saw - or you could do it yourself with a Japanese pull saw. These come with various tooth forms including a very fine one for ripping along the grain. Because they cut on the pull stroke, these saws can be a lot thinner than a western style as they don't buckle.

The benefit of having a 60mm width is that you can then sand to the required thickness and get two uniform scales from a single piece

If you do decide to go with a wedge I personally like to use either contrasting (color) wood or lead wedge with wood scales.

Integral scales sound good too and that is something I have not done yet but this thread has sparked an interest in making some.