Wood scales

[MMGRenovations]

So I got pretty bored tonight and I had some oak lying around. I more or less wanted to see if I was capable of making scales. The Manix 2 is my favorite knife so naturally that's the one I tried with. I made the scales with not a lot of tools. I used a table saw, jigsaw, drill, drill bits, 52100 PM2, and sandpaper. I had a few failed attempts but I'm pretty happy with the way it turned out.



So my question is what wood would make a better scale? I want to make a set that would be easy to sand and work but tougher than oak as I understand oak is not ideal for a scales. I would like something that takes a nice light red color when stained.

[Xplorer]

Nice work with the oak scales. :)

The best bet for a wood knife handle may be to use a stabilized wood. If you want to use a wood that is not stabilized but will hold up reasonably well when exposed to water, hand oils and other elements Ironwood, or Lignum Vitae would be a couple of good choices.

Chad

[Larry_Mott]

Ironwood, Lignum Vitae, African blackwood, ebony, cocobolo, tigerwood and Mopane are good ones

[The Deacon]

I'd agree with Chad and Larry, but would add that none of the natural woods they mention are "easy to sand and work" and most either don't take stain well or are too dark to stain to a "light red". Woods and metals have one thing in common, those that sand and work easily also ding, dent, and scratch easily.

Stabilized wood might be your best bet. Properly stabilized wood can't be stained, because it's been infused with a polymer resin and can't absorb the stain, but you can purchase stabilized wood that was stained prior to stabilization. You have to be careful though, since the term "stabilized" is used to describe wood that's been subjected to two very different processes. The type you want has been submerged in a polymer resin and subjected to a vacuum to suck the air out of its pores and replace it with resin. The type you don't want has just had its end grain sealed with cyanoacrylate.

[Larry_Mott]

You're quite right Paul.. And sorry for failing to read O.P. proper.
The woods i chose are (IMO) quite beautiful "as is" also African Blackwood and Mopane are quite resinous and shed moisture better than other woods
(both are brilliant for woodwind instruments that are constantly cycling between "wet" from breath condensation and dry beween use.

[Bloke]

We have some very nice hardwood here in Australia and a fellow here in NSW sells some beautifully figured hardwood at very reasonable prices through EBay that might be worth a look.

I've bought a few bits off him in the past without issue. :)

https://m.ebay.com.au/itm/Australian-Br ... xyNo9SqXDY

[xceptnl]

You could always treat your finished scales with boiled linseed oil and apply several coats to allow them to really soak it up. This is not as good as stabilized wood, but it means you can do it all yourself.

As for wood selection. I have been dabbling in the same idea as you. I had some Juniper laying around and have always thought it was a great scale material. My next purchase will likely be some dark grained bog oak for my Mule mod project.

[Squawk]

Good start, keep on going!
There are so many nice types of wood you can choose from. Lately, i have used a lot of walnut for wooden handles. It's pretty easy to shape and finish and looks fantastic when finished properly. I'm usually doing all the shaping and finishing by hand up to 3000 grit sandpaper, that takes some time but yields pretty good results. I found danish oil with a good amount of tung oil and linseed oil gives the wood a nice and robust finish.

[Squawk]

Maybe you can get some inspiration here? :-)

[Xplorer]

Just as The Deacon said, the wood species that are good for knife handles without having to be stabilized are too hard to accept stain very well and many are also oily. This makes them tough and water/oil resistant but also stain resistant. As for easy to work or not easy...it's all relative. Those hard woods are not easy like oak but they're also not difficult like carbon fiber either.

Stabilized wood (properly stabilized in resin under max atmospheric vacuum) gives you a wood that has good resistance to water and oil plus added toughness while allowing you to use most any species of wood. In fact, I did a Mule handle recently where I used black resin to stabilize a piece of cork oak and the result was a nice hard and stable handle material (It belongs to another forum member so I'll leave it to him to post a pic if he wants).

My dad makes hand crafted wood furniture out of all sorts of fancy, exotic wood species (the kind of furniture I can't afford ). About a year ago, I convinced him to set up a stabilizing system in his shop for me so I could use all of his end cuts and scraps of beautiful burls for my knives. Here's a few examples of wood handles that I've done as a result.

From left to right..Maple burl, figured maple, maple burl, claro walnut.


If you want to check out stabilized options and you're not sure where to find a good selection check out Trugrit.com. Also the guy doing the best stabilizing work IMO is KandGstabilizing.com or knifeandgun.com.

Best regards,
Chad

[p_atrick]

Great work on the scales. There is a relatively new knife-maker-centric podcast called "Mark of the Maker". In episode two, Tom Krein talks about his first attempts at making a knife. He said that he broke off a bunch of drill bits trying to drill some Pakka wood (he was in high school and grabbed whatever tools he could find). I would imagine that other stabilized woods would be similar. If you go that route, I'd look into what it takes to drill the wood without damaging your bits.

As for your current scales, I would suggest a product that is a combination of bees wax and linseed oil. My father is really into wood working, and he recommends this a lot (I don't know which brand, he just put some in small bottle for me; I'd be happy to ask him if you want). He helped me to make a "custom" Opinel (started with the Raw variant). Since the handle was untreated, he said to use the aforementioned product. He likes it because if the handle starts to wear, you don't have to strip anything down to apply a new coat. Just wipe some on, wait, and buff. It has held well, and takes a darker color the more I use it. As somebody mentioned above, it will ding and dent if I am a bit careless with the knife. Regardless, I'm sure you will learn tons by the time you decide to try it again. Well done.

[zhyla]

You can find hundreds of appropriate woods from any knife supply website. If you want something you can find at a local hardwood store, walnut will work fine. If that shop has more exotic stuff anything dense like padauk or ebony will be awesome (once you're done making the scale).

[MMGRenovations]

Wow guys I appreciate all the information provided. I did a bit of reading and I do agree that most likely what I want is stabilized wood. I also like natural wood a lot. I do plan on making a few more so that I can perfect my technique. I wouldn't want to ruin some of that expensive wood. I would also like to make a jig of some sort to route out the scales. I just have to find the right bit to build the jig around it. My router is mainly used to mortise hinges, strike plates and latches on doors. I get consistent repeatable results with the router and a jig for doors so I imagine I can do the same with scales.

I wasn't planning on finishing the scales I made but today was a long day doing electrical and drywall, I used the knife quite a bit. I felt they were pretty comfortable and felt lighter as well. I'm probably going to use linseed oil to see if I like them better. I really want to thank you guys for the information.


I also want to thank Sal. I never realized how much I use the pocket clip. I kept misplacing my knife today. I also realized I use the pocket clip a lot to brace my pinky to close the knife. Felt kinda weird not having it.

[MMGRenovations]

Well I took the advise of the boiled linseed oil. It's looks great!!! Thanks again to all of you for the advise.