Bookmatched Scales?

ddavelarsen

ddavelarsen

Joined
Dec 7, 2000
Messages
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How do you align bookmatched scales? It's no big deal with fine grained wood, but I have some with great figure I want to take advantage of. Can't believe I've never dealt with this before - or maybe I have and just didn't like the result and forgot all about it. :rolleyes:

Do you match them face-to-face the way they grew, or flip them inside-out and show the matching pattern? Hope that makes sense.

Thanks for any suggestions.
 
As someone who looks at knives (a lot), but doesn't make them myself, I would think flipping them inside out and showing the matching pattern would be the most appealing. This would give the greatest effect, IMHO. :)

-Kathryn
 
Hi Dave, I don't think you'd be wrong either way but here is one way to think about it. Bookmarked scales sell for a little more since they are almost mirror images. If you put the mirrored images next to the tang the 'outside' may or may not finish up looking book marked. If you put the bookmarks both facing out with the same orientation, you should be able to have a very similar appearance on both sides of the handle - which is what you paid for buying by bookmarked.
 
Definately use mirror image out. That is what you pay a little extra for. When I cut blocks to use for scales, I use the bookmatched sides out even if I am using not so outrageous wood.
 
William Scagel made a small knife for a man he despised (politically) and put a pink scale on one side and a MOP scale on the other. The man had done him a kindness, and it was required that he return the favor, or he would be owing to the man for life. The gentleman looked at the knife admiringly, and when he turned it over and saw the different scale, he asked why. Bill replied, "Well, you damn Democrats want everything both ways, so I made your knife that way." He then walked out of the man's office....debt repaid.

(As told to me by Dr. Lucie, Scagel's long tiime friend.)
Stacy
 
bladsmth said:
William Scagel made a small knife for a man he despised (politically) and put a pink scale on one side and a MOP scale on the other. The man had done him a kindness, and it was required that he return the favor, or he would be owing to the man for life. The gentleman looked at the knife admiringly, and when he turned it over and saw the different scale, he asked why. Bill replied, "Well, you damn Democrats want everything both ways, so I made your knife that way." He then walked out of the man's office....debt repaid.

(As told to me by Dr. Lucie, Scagel's long tiime friend.)
Stacy
Click to expand...

I like that story.
 
I always put outside at outside showing. The re-sawed side of scales against tang. The grain lines or figure match up as they were before re-sawing. The faces are never the same of course but that often happens anyhow as you contour the scales. One never knows what lies below. I always have one side I like better than the other and in trying to guess at it I like putting my favorite on the maker mark side.

rlinger
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Wow, what a weekend, this is the first time I've gotten back here for days. Thanks for all the replies folks. I know what I'm going to do with them now and I really appreciate the help.

Yeah Ray, I'm makin some knives - hard to believe ain't it? :D Let's hope I haven't forgotten how to grind! (So far so good, but I have forgotten a lot of the order of doing things... "No, wait! Don't drill that!" Too late. :D)
 
Book matched wood looks great on a guitar or furniture. I think the idea of book matching is lost on a knife because, afterall, you can only see one side at a time. I tend to use the same method rlinger uses because I think it looks better from the side that you see when you are holding the knife, the top.
 
I almost agree with rlinger too. I've been doing it the other way though. Now that I'm doing my own resawing I'm starting to look at both the inside and the outside and decide which I like best.

Thanks for making me think about this, it will probably change what I do.
 
I have gone both ways on this. It depends on which way looks best for both sides. If it is burl, often the saw cut will remove enough to screw up the bookmatching anyway. You can never be sure until you have them down to thickness.
 
Great to hear you are getting back in the shop Dave!

You know, I've never really given this much thought since I've always just put the scales, including ones I've sawn myself with the mirror sides against the tang so that the grain lines match up along the edges (the width of the tang pretty much makes up the missing section down the middle of the block lost to the saw). After countouring and shaping the original surface is lost so I suppose if I wanted to use the mirror image "out" I'd remove as much of the thickness of the scale from the tang side to minimize the potential loss of the observable figure. Dang Dave, now you've gone and given me another decision to make before I can finish a knife!:D
 
I'm not sure where I saw it, but I saw a really neat full tang knife with bookmatched scales where the guy etched the tang to look like the figure in the wood. It made it look like the center of the wood had just turned into steel.
 
This is good stuff folks, but you're making my decision harder! :D

But for these, I'm going to put the matched sides out. I'll thin the scales as close to the proper thickness as I can from the "new inside" first, and contour the "new outside" as little as possible to retain as much of that beautiful grain as I can. These are really nice Ironwood scales that I'm charging a hefty amount to use, so I want to do it to take as much advantage as possible of their figure. (The "original outside" isn't anywhere near as interesting.)

Guy, procrastination will get you where I am - out of practice, with soft hands. I don't recommend it. ;)

I really like the idea of etching the tang to match the grain across it. That's the kind of detail that makes this work special and worth doing.
 
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