Thread: Need a little help with wood scales.

Hello,

I make knives for fun and as a hobby. It lends itself to restoring str8 razors and eventually making some. Im working on my first 4 razors and I want to make new scales. Most of the knives I make are outdoor and camp knives that get beat up so Ive never really used any fancy hardwoods. I love g10, linen micarta, and canvas micarta but nothing looks as classy as highly polished wood. Is there a list of woods that you guys have used on str8 razors scales? Im going to go threw Bell Forest Products and they have woods that are dried and not dried. They dont say anything about them being stabilized hardwoods. Do you have to use wood that is stabilized or will "dried" wood work? Woods that interest me: Zebrawood, Wenge, Tornillo wood, Macassar Ebony, Leopardwood, Kingwood, Honduras Rosewood, Gaboon Ebony, Curly Maple, Cocobolo, Bocote, Black Palm, and Black & White Ebony. If theres a website or tread with wood scale making please chime in. Any wood scale info would be great!

Thanks,

Chris

For me when it comes to wood. My main concern is to make sure the wood scales are completely sealed. Folks have used all sorts of products to do this, Ren wax, CA, Poly and so on. The key is that you make them as waterproof/ resistant as you can. Dried woods word well and offer some outstanding looks of class.
As for stabilized woods, I use stabilized woods when it comes to the burls and other "curly " or "birdseye" patterns that are brittle do to the patterns.

Thats what I have for you and I'm sure other guys will jump in with their thoughts as well. Good Luck and enjoy!

Dried wood is fine just clear coat it when done. You have quite a list there of exotic wood.
I have used walnut, maple, purple heart, mahogany, oak and cedar.
One tip cut oversized and sand to where you want it. You can install the wedge before clear coating that's how I do them a lot.
Try to keep your grain long ways on the scale, if you put the grain across the scale the strength is signifantly lower.
Hope this helped a little.

Originally Posted by Mastershake

Dried wood is fine just clear coat it when done. You have quite a list there of exotic wood.
I have used walnut, maple, purple heart, mahogany, oak and cedar.
One tip cut oversized and sand to where you want it. You can install the wedge before clear coating that's how I do them a lot.
Try to keep your grain long ways on the scale, if you put the grain across the scale the strength is signifantly lower.
Hope this helped a little.

I'd agree that it is much, much, much better to use stabilised woods for razor scales, I'm not sure I am stressing this firmly enough. The trouble is, most sources of stabilised wood are in lengths up to five inches, which is fine for knife handles, but not long enough for razors. Remember that razors get wet every day, which knives don't. Any crack or chip in surface varnish is likely to admit water, which may cause ugly staining. Pure water might dry out cleanly, but soap and oil won't.

You should be able to find threads by people who have stabilised their own wood, and I've seen one or two which advocated something I consider essential. The pores in wood contain air, and if you simply compress the liquid and immersed scales, the air will force the liquid back out of the pores when pressure is released. What ytou need is a vacuum pump to such the air out or the pores, and give permanent access to the hardening fluid.

Cyanoacrylate superglue of the cheapest, non-gel type is about the best substitute you can get, for application without sucking out the air. It is peculiarly penetrative stuff. Otherwise immersion in thinned, watery varnish or cellulose sealer might be used, with several coats of the thicker stuff later.

I am still finishing my first few sets of scales, one of which is Amboyna Burl. I dont think there is a better looking wood out there. I am a fan of all burls but amboyna pops! My fiancee thinks it looks like fire, which it can if your burls are really knotty and twisted. Then again the more burly you get the more expensive it gets.

For my first set of wood scales I used a soft wax directly on the wood, followed by a layer of clear coat. The finish has some very nice polish to it. Now I have to decide which razor to partner the scales with.

This site is like a neverending book of knowledge and experience. If you can find it in a search then just ask and people will have some answers for you. I am still learning as well, and I am addicted to this site and to razors.

Bell Forest is who I use almost exclusively...

Great customer service, I use their 1.5 x 1.5 x 6 inch blocks and cut the blanks myself to have bookends, they also hae 1/8 planed pieces that were made just for us that make things pretty easy

Out of your list of woods I would recommend the Kingwood and the Zebrawood as the easiest to work with at first...

Honestly I have never stabilized anything but Burls that need it, and my most recent experiment with a special request of using customer supplied Cactus Rib and that needed it...

There is plenty of info on finishes in the workshop sticky here http://straightrazorpalace.com/works...wers-here.html