How to rip scale stock from tree branches w/o power tools

OK, this is not the only way, and maybe not even the best way, but it's my way.

1. Buy a Japanese style saw with a rip side and a crosscut side, the bigger the better.

2. Have a bench vise available.

3. Get a tree branch.

4. Put the branch in the vise and saw it almost in half lengthwise. Do not saw it completely through. Look down the saw as though you're sighting a rifle, and you can get the saw pretty vertical by eyeball alone. If the saw feels like it's binding, you're pulling it crooked. If it slides easily, you're pulling it straight.

5. When the blade starts to feel like it's getting stuck, that's because you've cut deep enough that the vise is pressing the two halves of the branch together. Remove it from the vise and finish it on the bench by holding it on a piece of scrap plywood. GO SLOW & EASY & BE CAREFUL! These saws are goddamn sharp. I cut myself 3 times.

6. Now that the branch has been sawed in half lengthwise, put it back in the vise, with a piece of paper shopping bag to protect the wood from the jaws. The flat side you have just sawed will sit flat against the face of the jaw, which guarantees that the flat face is nice & vertical. Repeat step 4 to cut a thin slice off. With a nice big saw, it's easy to see if the saw blade is vertical when you look down the saw as if it were a rifle. If the saw blade is vertical, you are making a nice parallel cut.

7. Try to avoid rocking the saw blade & cutting from different angles. This will result in saw marks that you will have to sand out.

Below are two thin slabs I cut using the method described above. I think the results are quite nice.

Happy sawing!

Very cool! Great job!

Charlie

No problem Charlie, I owe you one. Your tutorial on Shave the Monkeys was how I learned to make scales :-)

Good tutorial.

I highly recommend drying the wood for at least 18 months (for the size you show) before sawing it into stock. Otherwise you're in for a host of problems like warping, shrinkage and checking. For you geeks out there, it should be in the ballpack of 18% moisture content before beginning to work it.

Agreed. I forgot to mention that. The branch in this pic was trimmed off an oak tree in the park because it was dead. Both ends were rotten, but the rot had not reached the middle. Since the branch looked like it had been dead for years, the part I salvaged was quite dry. If you cut a green branch, it will take a looooong time to dry out. A friend of mine who is a woodworker advised painting the cut ends with latex paint to limit the checking/splitting as it dries.

About 1 year of drying per inch of thickness to reach EMC (equilibrium moisture content) is a good rule of thumb.for green wood Thin stock dries faster.

Charlie

An extra note fon the woodworking question.

Do not wait for your branch to dry out totally before you saw it.

As Spazola correctly points out, thin wood stock dries faster.

Make sure that you rip your wood to a thicker cross section than you need. After it is cut, support it so that it cannot sag or bend and leave it to dry quietly. When cut into fairly thin sections like that it will be dry in a number of months instead of a year. You can even hasten this a little bit by putting it in a slightly warmer, dryer area of your house to dry.

Even when properly supported and/or clamped while drying, the wood may have some residual warp, cupping or twist and you will ultimately have to cut your scale stock from the dried sections of wood with whatever distortions drying have imparted. If there is, indeed, any twist, cupping or wind in the dried wood, do not try to force it back straight. Simply sand, plane or shave it until it is properly flat on one side and then saw or sand it to the required thickness for your scales.

Enjoy!

A thing that works better than paint is waterproof glue like titebond 3. even regular yellow glue works well and so does white glue lol.

This is a must if you are drying in the round, otherwise it will surely check and split.

unless you are keeping the bark on for beauty, remove it.

Finally, branches can be unflattenable. you remove wood and the piece re-warps, twists etc. Reaction wood it is called. With the way branches grow it is unavoidable. with the length / width of scales the problem can be minimal- but my last 2 sets of bark scaled razor handles have failed because of recurring twists- small diameter curved branches and i did not try to "bend" it out.

Ignatz, ripping green is probably not the best option for branches because of the RW, better to store in in a hot, dry place.

kevint;

Personally, I would choose to dry out the wood in thinner sections to gain time, but I have to admit that you have an extremely valid point about the possible presence of 'reaction wood' in the branch, and if there was any doubt, I guess your way might be better.

That said, if there are heavy stresses built up in any particular piece of wood, it will still have a tendancy to move when cut, no matter how it was dried. :(

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Originally Posted by ignatz

That said, if there are heavy stresses built up in any particular piece of wood, it will still have a tendancy to move when cut, no matter how it was dried. :(

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Too true. Been there.

Smaller branches can be steamed prior to drying to reduce the internal stresses. It works a lot like tempering. For larger branches, you're still screwed since the steam will likely not penetrate far enough into the heartwood to make a difference.