Attempting to make my own scales!

Chalet

Chalet

Joined
Aug 23, 2013
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I've only been to Woodcraft before once, and I went in and bought my dad a gift card since he does some pretty cool stuff. I live about three blocks from one and so my fiancee stopped in there on our way home from spending the day together. Thought we'd stop in for a few minutes...which turned into an hour :eek:

She ushered me out of there and I still wasn't ready to go. But while there I found some perfect sized boards to try making some knife scales out of for my BK11s. From left to right; paduak, bloodwood and purpleheart.

For liners I'll use kydex I think.

Hopefully I'm able to do it. I'm going to try here at home but if I need something specific I'll head over to my dad's since his basement is basically a full shop.

 
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Mine usually has bocote in stock too. That's my favorite to work. Lacewood makes nice scales, as does bubinga, although that's harder to work because it's a bit more brittle. I usually do a CA finish. Lots of good finishes there, as well as a wide variety of sandpapers, sharpening stuff, etc.
 
I was there today (at mine, not yours) looking to use the 10% coupon they send me every year for my birthday. Had a piece of black and white ebony in my hand; it had the best figure out of the small amount they had there, but it had a crack about a fifth into a 24" board. They wouldn't discount it anymore (it's on sale this month) so I put it back. It is a great (if somewhat expensive) store. I've already got plenty of wood anyway - really need to finish some stuff before I buy some more.
I am looking forward to seeing your progress on this. Nice choice on the wood, too. One thing, though - the purpleheart turns brownish over time, resulting in (what I think is) a very sophisticated coffee/purple color.
 
i've only been...

afraid of full sentences in topics ;)

for a ...

few days now ;)

man. imagine if people used full descriptive sentences in topics :> then you wouldn't have to read them all :D

never been to a "woodcraft" before. never heard of them.
 
Bladite said:
i've only been...

afraid of full sentences in topics ;)

for a ...

few days now ;)

man. imagine if people used full descriptive sentences in topics :> then you wouldn't have to read them all :D

never been to a "woodcraft" before. never heard of them.
Click to expand...

Sorry, fixed it for you :)

Woodcraft is a specialty woodworking store. It's pretty neat but expensive. The only reason I ever even knew about them was because I drive past it sometimes to go to work if there are problems with my normal route.

I did most of one side. I'm going to pick up a rat tail file and normal file at work and try to file out the rear a little bit for the bottle opener. Then I'll do the other side, and then I'll sand both a little bit more. I took a little bit too much off of this side on the bottom, but it's not very noticeable. Sorry about the picture quality.

To get to where I am now I used a BK11, a mora classic, and 60 grit sandpaper.





 
It looks like your onto a good start.
I wish I had a store like that near me.
 
Woodcraft is nice because you can look at each individual block of wood before buying, unlike online which is pretty much a blind purchase. I got a nice block of olive and guyacan, and a flat of cocobolo at the closeout of our former local store.
 
That looks like a fun project.

I'd never heard of woodcraft stores before, unfortunately the nearest one to me is clear across the state! Darn.
 
Fun project!! Looking good so far!

And yea, I hate that store...... for real, I spend way to much money in there every time I go. haha

They sure have an awesome looking wood selection. And at the one here in San Antonio, the guys who work there are always so helpful. I was buying a new spokeshave a few months ago and talking to one of the guys about some saws and mentioned to him since he seemed so knowledgeable how I was trying to dial in my bench plane and he told me what days he was working and said bring it in and he would show me how to set it up perfectly in 45mins to an hour. And he said it didn't matter if I bought the plane at a woodcraft or not. Thats awesome.

And they have classes almost every weekend showing how to make stuff. The last time I stopped in on a saturday, there was a whole group of people turning wood making pens.
 
Did more work on these today. I did the other side and then evened them up a bit, made the liners (which I forgot to take pictures of) out of kydex and glued them on, then drilled the holes and countersunk them. Now that they're mounted on the knife I'll be able to shape them and round off the corners and stuff. But they're 90% of the way there, wasn't sure I could pull it off. They aren't perfect but they're mine and it's given me the confidence to try again.

I'm not sure what I'll put on them, maybe mineral oil? Linseed oil? Beeswax? What sort of finish should go on here?

Thanks!













They should look a good bit nicer once I've gotten them all sanded evenly and everything. They feel fantastic, though, being 1/4" on each side with not much taper. Really fills my hand.
 
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