First Time Attempting To Make Scales (Lots of Pics)

[sweet_hitch-hiker]

I was bored last night so I decided to try to make some wooden scales for my Kershaw Zing.

Here's some pics of it.

First thing i did was disassemble the knife. Here's the internals:

Here is the scales to be replaced:

I wanted to use some crap wood to make a test run or 2, before i got nice wood to do this with. I was hoping to use a cross section of a 2x4 but as you can see it wasn't quite long enough:

So I did some digging through the scrap wood in the garage and found a suitable piece

It was too thick so I cut it length wise. I thought it was still too wide but I can always sand it later.

So then I started cutting them to fit the scales. I don't really have the proper tools or any wood working experience. I tried to use the Roto-Zip but it was too hard to make intricate cuts so I ended up using a hacksaw fore most of this.

I was chugging along and then a piece broke off. I wasn't happy but this is just a test run so it's no biggie. you can see in the 2nd pic only a little bit stick out.

I did have a few more pics but apparently they are corrupted so I can't upload them but I will when I get home from the gym tonight.

 

[simioh]

Have you finished them? So far it doesn't look pretty, but I guess it rarely looks pretty on the first attempt at it. I haven't even attempted it, but you might inspire me to give it a try some day.

Looking forward to the rest of the pictures.

 

[sweet_hitch-hiker]

No, I haven't finished them yet. I had a pic of my final progress but it won't upload.I have a really coarse wood file that I can really clean them up with but I couldn't find it last night so I couldn't do too much. I know they do look very rough, but I've never done anything like this.

 

[botolfs]

What kind of wood is it? Looks soft, maybe if you got some harder wood (oak, birch) you might get better result and it might be easier to work with.

 

[sweet_hitch-hiker]

It's pine I think, just an old part of a 2x2 or 2x4. i just didnt want to spend money on nicer wood and then ruin it.

 

[Omega Leather Works]

Keep at it man. For what it's worth, I like the look of regular poplar from Lowes. I carved this scoop out of it and it's very inexpensive.

Might work for practice stuff.

 

[Phydeaux]

I've gotten some nice handle material from flooring scraps at a building materials recycling center. I got some ipe flooring, a couple of maple boards and some black walnut there. One of my favorite finds was some birdseye maple flooring. Nice wood doesn't have to break the bank, the birdseye maple was 2 or 3 dollars for a strip 2 1/2" wide and about 36" long and could easily get several sets of scales out of it.

Cheap enough to not worry about it if i mess it up, but nice enough to look good if i don't mess it up.

I tend to make my replacement scales quite a bit thicker that the originals. I like to make sure the edges are well rounded and it fits in my hand well. My Tenacious feels like a totally different knife now.

Keep us posted on your progress.

Ric

 

[phillipsted]

Another good source of low-cost stock is to request free samples from vendors of phenolic countertop materials (e.g., paperstone) and exotic decking materials (e.g., Ipe). The sample sizes are usually perfect for knife scales...

I also found a sale at a discounter where they had phenolic cutting boards on sale for a dollar apiece - they were 3/8" thick and yielded about 8 sets of fixed blade scales per board.

TedP