Attempting to make scales fit for a "king"

Thank you so much everyone, the kind words mean allot.

Here they are, all finished and mounted on "the king".:cool:









I think it looks much better in person, and a bit darker.
I just don't have the photography skills to capture the grain an small details.:(


In the end, I'm happy with the color. I think it looks good with the black coated blade, and should look even better with the blade stripped.
It also feel much more "substantial" in the hand. I did a little chopping, and it felt very comfortable in my hand.

...................now I just need a matching 7 to go with my 9.;)
I'll have another set of cherry handles waiting for the next knife.
 
Looks like the king gonna have some nice new clothes ! They look great. I'm sculpting out a set of ghost g10 handles for my BK2, hope they come out as nice as your cherry ones.
 
Acer, you've got me inspired! Today I roughed out two sets of walnut, two sets of cherry, a set of curly maple and one of Sapele. Been meaning to do it for a while, and those scales of your look so good.... I'm curious to know how you got the outline - I'm thinking of pattern routing before I split the wood in half on the bandsaw. How did you do the curvy bits? Rasp? Drum sander? More details, please! I'm happy to make my own mistakes, but I'd rather learn what I can first. The only thing I've made remotely similar were a couple of new totes for some old Bailey hand plane, but they're flat so I just radiused them on the router table. Those scales really look nice. BTW, did you know that Acer is also the Latin name for the genus maple? Coincidence?
Oh...do yourself a favor and get some stainless bolts and nylock nuts. IMO they would rock those scales.
 
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Thank you everyone.
I'm eventually going to strip the blade after I wear off the coating a little more, but I'm going to keep the thumb ramp.
I know a lot of people don't like the ramp, but I kind of like the feeling of it.


granitestateofmind said:
Acer, you've got me inspired! Today I roughed out two sets of walnut, two sets of cherry, a set of curly maple and one of Sapele. Been meaning to do it for a while, and those scales of your look so good.... I'm curious to know how you got the outline - I'm thinking of pattern routing before I split the wood in half on the bandsaw. How did you do the curvy bits? Rasp? Drum sander? More details, please! I'm happy to make my own mistakes, but I'd rather learn what I can first. The only thing I've made remotely similar were a couple of new totes for some old Bailey hand plane, but they're flat so I just radiused them on the router table. Those scales really look nice. BTW, did you know that Acer is also the Latin name for the genus maple? Coincidence?
Oh...do yourself a favor and get some stainless bolts and nylock nuts. IMO they would rock those scales.
Click to expand...

Glad your inspired, I'm flattered.
I cut it out with the band saw then did most of the shaping with a belt sander, and the inside radius with a dremel since I don't have a drum sander, or spindle sander.
I do have a balloon sander that probably would have worked better.
Suppose it would have been easier to do most of the "rounding" with a router, but the cherry smelled so good when I turned it into fine dust with the sander.;)
Honestly I just took my time a kept checking how the contours felt in my hand until it felt "just right".
Next time I'm near the hardware store I'll get some stainless hardware for it too.
 
Excellent work, Acer. Looking good. I like the color on those scales. The wood looks warm and buttery. Very cool. :thumbup:
 
very nice looking scales Acer! They compliment the 9's "tactical" black coat, and should look even better stripped! ;)
 
acerpower said:
Glad your inspired, I'm flattered.
I cut it out with the band saw then did most of the shaping with a belt sander, and the inside radius with a dremel since I don't have a drum sander, or spindle sander.
I do have a balloon sander that probably would have worked better.
Suppose it would have been easier to do most of the "rounding" with a router, but the cherry smelled so good when I turned it into fine dust with the sander.;)
Honestly I just took my time a kept checking how the contours felt in my hand until it felt "just right".
Next time I'm near the hardware store I'll get some stainless hardware for it too.
Click to expand...
Thanks so much for the info - I think I went a little nuts cutting out so many blanks; started trying to figure out how to do the basic shaping in a more efficacious way. Sadly, I don't have a CNC router table, but that would just take the fun out of it anyway :-) I guess I'll have the opportunity to try a couple different methods, maybe even a spokeshave. Speaking of God smelling wood, we had a microburst just after father's day here and I ended up with a pile of Acer saccharum(sugar maple) that I've been splitting and stacking and that stuff smells like heaven!
Thanks again for the pics and the inspiration!
 
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