Thread: Scales Design/Restore

Okay Ladies and Gents,
Since I received this blade from my grandfather in a broken state I figured I'd give my best a shot at designing and building a custom set of scales for it.


The attached PDF has a rough sketch of my initial design.
I came to this design for one main reason. My grandfather's favorite hobby is model aircraft (gliders mainly but getting into some powered prop planes and designs) and this scales design is based on a wing design he and I worked on back in the early 2000s for one of his planes. Since it came from him, I figured I'd base the design of my first scales on something that, maybe most people won't get, but he will.

Now, I have a tendency to highly over engineer my designs but most of my builds will probably last longer that I will . I'm going to start with what I believe is some Red Mahogany. I have 4 2" x 2" x 18" blocks. These were taken from an outdoor table that I chopped down and cut in half to make outdoor planters for the wife. Its weathered but 1/8" to 1/4" of planing should remove all the weathering. Then they will be cut in 1/4" blanks. I will be cutting all of them since all 4 blocks do have some cracking. Hopefully I will get enough blanks that I can make multiple sets of scale blanks because I know I will screw this design up.

This design incorporates a 2 sides with no wedge. Instead I will cut/file/sand out where the blade will go and make the "wedge" part of the scale design. I'm starting with 1/4" blanks but total maximum width will be around 3/8" to 7/16" after all sanding and everything.

Has anyone tried 2 piece scales like this without a wedge but removing wood from the inside of the scales to make the negative space required for the blade?

Any advise, criticism, proposed adjustments, etc... welcome. I can take much abuse.