Thread: Wood Scales - Browse & Buy Online

Thanks for all the great input! If we were to consider 1/8" thick stock, would 1/8" x 1-1/2" x 7" be a good size, pleasing to most?? Any other thoughts about sizes would be great. If one size came out as the optimum, both for you and us, I think we could justify machining them and offering them. Please let me know. Thanks. -Adam.

Originally Posted by szym9341

If we were to consider 1/8" thick stock, would 1/8" x 1-1/2" x 7" be a good size, pleasing to most?? Any other thoughts about sizes would be great. If one size came out as the optimum, both for you and us, I think we could justify machining them and offering them.

Hey Adam! As I already said for my personal preference- it is 1/8" x 3" x 24".

Here's my thinking- Usually I get my wood at Woodcraft which is luckily local to me. I get this size there in a lot of exotics. Now they don't have some of the more obscure stuff which I'd of course like to get, but for me to place an online order, the sizes and at least the prices need to be competitive (obviously some woods are more). So if I can get a piece of Purpleheart at the size I listed at woodcraft for like $8 and other woods there for similar prices, unless the prices for the same woods at the same sizes are competitive through a website (where I pay to ship) I probably will stick to woodcraft and sacrifice getting some nicer woods. Obviously this is only MY opinion.

As for the size you listed- 1/8" x 1-1/2" x 7" - it is decent. I personally think sizes in increments of 6" long are most ideal. To be sure to get 2 scales out of a piece that small, you might want the width to be 2" for some of the larger or more ornamented scale designs. 7" long would not be so bad though since it would offer some extra wood for spacers.

Originally Posted by szym9341

Thanks for all the great input! If we were to consider 1/8" thick stock, would 1/8" x 1-1/2" x 7" be a good size, pleasing to most?? Any other thoughts about sizes would be great. If one size came out as the optimum, both for you and us, I think we could justify machining them and offering them. Please let me know. Thanks. -Adam.

Not a bad size. As Alex said, it's a little long on length and a little short on width to get a whole set of scales out of one piece. I'd be VERY interested if you could offer pieces of the size you mentioned in more or less bookmatched pairs, especially in your burls and spalted stuff.

my perference is to buy wood that is in multiples of 3 x 6 x 1/8th with my best choice being 3 x 12-13 x 1/8th .. i think that is a great piece of wood that will allow the person more then 1 set of scales (incase of a mistake). you will get 2 sets of scales out of that piece of wood. which also will help to justify the price. i'd hope you'd be able to make them cheap enough so that someone would buy 2 boards of 3x12x1/8 for 10-15$

all of us here thank you for your open communication with the community in working to come to a usefull product for all.

~J

Okay, thanks again for the input. We have to be quite creative in order to keep costs down. 3" wide stock is something we do not normally carry, yet. Making the 1/8" x 3" wide will be a bit difficult right now, but if your market is big enough, I don't think it will be a problem in the months to come. I'd like to throw another size out there (just to consider) We can offer the following size for a very reasonable price: 1/8" x 1" x 12". For example, we sell Bloodwood in 1" x 1" x 12" for $3.25. We could make (4) 1/8" x 1" x 12" pieces from that stock fairly easily and quickly. Each piece in this example would be about $1.31. Another example: Birdseye 1" x 1" x 12" = $5.25, 1/8" x 1" x 12" = $1.81. Would that size/price be of any interest? Thanks again for all your input.

The fact that a vendor is actually trying to help fit their product to our hobby tells me that there is hope out there
Myself I will not be voting on a size, your sizes work for me the way they are.

Fortunatly for some of us out in the boonies, we have companies like yours out there otherwise, I would have the huge luxury of buying plain old oak up here, or driving on a 200 mile round trip to pick up a few exotics in the nearest city....
Thanks again

Originally Posted by szym9341

Okay, thanks again for the input. We have to be quite creative in order to keep costs down. 3" wide stock is something we do not normally carry, yet. Making the 1/8" x 3" wide will be a bit difficult right now, but if your market is big enough, I don't think it will be a problem in the months to come. I'd like to throw another size out there (just to consider) We can offer the following size for a very reasonable price: 1/8" x 1" x 12". For example, we sell Bloodwood in 1" x 1" x 12" for $3.25. We could make (4) 1/8" x 1" x 12" pieces from that stock fairly easily and quickly. Each piece in this example would be about $1.31. Another example: Birdseye 1" x 1" x 12" = $5.25, 1/8" x 1" x 12" = $1.81. Would that size/price be of any interest? Thanks again for all your input.

1/8" X 1" X 12" Could work. The 1" is on the low side of the spectrum. Ideally you'd want to make the 1"x12" face a radial section for woods with a normal grain. Tangential cuts have much less character in most cases.

Let's say we started with 1/8" x 3" x 24". If we were to stock 12 species in that size, which 12 are most preferred? In cue building we offer many species as options, but when it comes down to it, most builders only buy a handful of what we offer. If we started with the most popular species for razor scales that would give us a chance to "test the waters" without too much investment.

Thanks.

-Adam.

Originally Posted by szym9341

Let's say we started with 1/8" x 3" x 24". If we were to stock 12 species in that size, which 12 are most preferred? In cue building we offer many species as options, but when it comes down to it, most builders only buy a handful of what we offer. If we started with the most popular species for razor scales that would give us a chance to "test the waters" without too much investment.

I think it would be tough to pick out 12 that everyone would want to buy. I do think it is a great idea to test out though! To make people most happy I think that the 12 should maybe run the spectrum from something that a lot of guys use to something very exotic.

About the 1 x 12" size, I prefer wider for another reason- It gives me more grain variety to pick from. If I get a 1 x 12" piece, it will only yield (hopefully!) one set of scales. Both the size and the output both limit the choice of where you cut.

Anyway, thanks again for reaching out to us. Anyone have wood choices? I'd personally want to buy some Olivewood, Amboyna Burl, Pink Ivory, and maybe B&W Ebony among other things. Those top my list.

the types of woods for scales that most people want are very similar in characteristics.

- highly figured
- multi-coloured *******this is probably most highly desired *******
- highly grained woods

examples being all spalted woods, burls of almost any type, B/W ebony, Masaccar ebony, olivewood, quilted woods work well if they have smaller more quantity of quilts, and ofcourse the old standards such as - yellowheart, purpleheart, zebrawood.

also, just as an fyi but im sure your team already knows. don't cut the burls less then 1/8 and probably 3/16th is better as they have a very high tendancy to be very weak at the curves of the figure and a breaks in the wood makes it basically useless.

all the best,
~J

ps. i think 1" wide is not enough. if you are rescaling a 7/8th blade or larger (which is what alot of people want), you need more then 1" of wood. usually 1.5" will be sufficient