Recommendation? Handle block/ saya combo woods

[Greenberg Woods]

Hey Guys, im gonna be cutting some high grade mango, curly sugi pine and 5A walnut. I want to cut some blocks with matching sayas from the same piece so they have a perfect grain match.

What sizes do you want for your sayas?
I was going to cut blocks to 1.125 x 1.75 x 5.5 and sayas 3.5 x .75 × 12 inches.

What do you think?

 

[Kevin McGovern]

Personally, I make sayas from 1/8" thick x 3" stock. I don't have to do any thinning then.

 

[milkbaby]

For kitchen knives? Strangely enough, I was working on one today. It's laminate construction with soft basswood spacer inbetween what started as two 3/8" walnut boards but is now a total of 3/8" width for entire saya. For the ones that I chisel out old school, they're usually similar thickness in the end, i.e. 3/8" total thickness. Other people like them bit thicker, so 3/4" is a decent thickness to give room for the kerf and individual preferences.

I'm a bit of an oddity as I don't have a bandsaw, so I resawed by hand a bit off each 3/8" board then took them to the disc to get thinner and even them up. I personally get bookmatched boards 1/4" to 3/8" for hardwood saya. Other dimensions of 3 to 3.5" by 12" sounds good.

 

[Stacy E. Apelt - Bladesmith]

Personally, I like the board left whole. 2-3" wide and 18-24" long. 1" thickness is good, or book matched 1/2" slabs.

 

[Greenberg Woods]

Personally, I like the board left whole. 2-3" wide and 18-24" long. 1" thickness is good, or book matched 1/2" slabs.

I need to cut out the handle block if im going to have it stabilized

 

[Stacy E. Apelt - Bladesmith]

I have the whole board stabilized, and then either split it completely for handle scales and saya halves, or cut off the handle block for a hidden tang, then spilt the remainder for the saya. This way the user will decide where to make the cut to determine the handle length. It also allows the user to decide where the best place to make the cut is.

IIRC, Burl Source cuts his saya wood at 3X18" and splits them nto 1/4"+ thickness.

 

[Greenberg Woods]

I have the whole board stabilized, and then either split it completely for handle scales and saya halves, or cut off the handle block for a hidden tang, then spilt the remainder for the saya. This way the user will decide where to make the cut to determine the handle length. It also allows the user to decide where the best place to make the cut is.

IIRC, Burl Source cuts his saya wood at 3X18" and splits them nto 1/4"+ thickness.

Do you think I should have the whole board stabilized? Or sell the natural board

 

[Stacy E. Apelt - Bladesmith]

Many folks who build a saya want natural wood. Others like stabilized. Mostly, the traditional japanese tanto/wakizashi/katana blades get natural wood. Kitchen blades often get stabilized.

One thing about saya wood is that it should be a softer wood. The harder and mineral filled woods may scratch highly polished blades.

My suggestion would be to sell the raw boards. The customer can cut it as he/she wishes and have it stabilized or not pre their requirements.

 

[Willie71]

I prefer to have a complete slab for projects like this. I’ll split it where I want, and choose the handle proportions. I like my starting piece to be way oversize, like the whole plank, and place the knife on the board to see which grain flows best for the project. More waste that way, but I only do sayas on more expensive builds, or for Kiths. Too many variables. Maybe do a few whole pieces, and a few pre-cut to see what there is more interest in. I prefer my sayas unstabilized, but it depends on the wood as to whether I stabilize the handle. Too many variables. I guess that’s why we don’t see handle/saya combo packages offered very often. Leave them whole and offer to split for a nominal fee?

 

[milkbaby]

The issue is trying to offer matched handle and saya block(s). The saya wood doesn't necessarily need to be stabilized because it's not glued to a barely moving piece of metal. I also bet that stabilized wood is more difficult to chisel out with saya nomi if going the traditional route.

You may just want to offer the matched handle and saya blocks as a custom offering. If you visit MarkF/Burlsource website, you can see he offers some standalone saya boards. I know there are people out there who dig it, but i personally don't like marching handle and saya out of one block, looks too matchy-matchy, but I may be the minority viewpoint?