Saya Wood - Tiger Maple?

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The purpose of this thread is to judge interest and determine how much of this tiger maple should be cut up into kitchen knife, saya making wood. If you would want to get some of this wood cut into saya material please make a post in this thread. Your post is not a commitment to buy, but a list of who I should send PMs to when I have some ready for purchase.

I bought a bunch of flat sawn Tiger Maple just recently.
These are kiln dried boards that the mill considers shorts because they were all under 4 foot long.
To furniture builders most of this would be considered top grade curly maple.
But to me only about 20% of the wood makes the grade for highly figured handle material.

I am going to take a portion of this and cut into saya making materials.
It will be book matched pairs with 12" x 3" x 1/4" as my target dimensions for each piece. There will be 2 pieces this size for each set. Price per set will be around $30 to $40 per set depending on the figure.

I thought that being flat sawn, it would be easier to carve the blade cavity with chisels.
Plus since this curly maple is flat sawn, the figure looks more like narrow v shape (tiger stripe) figure..

The photo barely shows the figure. This is how the boards look straight from the mill. When I get some cut and sanded I will post more photos.
sw001_zps22bddf1a.jpg
 
I received a couple messages asking "what is a saya?"
Simple answer: a wooden scabbard for a knife.
On the right of this photo is a store bought saya for a generic chef knife. The wood on the left is some medium grade figure. I need to make sayas for my kitchen knives so I will cut up several sets. Whatever doesn't sell right away will get used on my knives. I like the blonde maple coloring because it goes with everything.
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I have cut and sanded 20 sets so far. Mostly Maple and Redwood.
Next I will be getting everything photographed and posted in our web store.
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These sets will be added to the web store on Monday Afternoon. You can barely see the figure because all I have done is drum sand them to 60 grit. The figure with curly woods starts to show itself after 220 grit and gets bolder the finer you sand it. I would suggest a minimum of 600 grit before you apply a finish.
Maple
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Redwood
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Just a few notes, mark:

For many blades, the 1/4" per side isn't really enough.

Also, the predominant method of saya construction is to inlet one side with the major recess. A popular second method is two outer pieces, with a center rib cutout.

A Tsuka/saya that is only 1/2" thick to start would be too narrow by the time shaping was done for all but the smallest kaiken.

Suggestions:
It might be a good idea to make some sets with both sides 3/8" thick.
I usually cut the slabs at 1/2" or more each. Some this thickness would be good, too.
Sets of three pieces at 1/4" each would be very nice.
 
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These ones were cut with kitchen knives in mind.
But you are right I should cut some thicker sets to be used on traditional Japanese knives.
The sayas I have made for my kitchen knives I ended up with the sides just under 1/8 thick.
 
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