scale thickness

Kevin McGovern

Kevin McGovern

Joined
Jul 31, 2015
Messages
3,118
What scale thickness do you all usually start with on different knives (small hunters, chef's knives, fighters)? I always order 3/8" or so in everything, but I use liners as well most of the time. I'm thinking I just got in the habit of ordering 3/8" vs 1/4" since early on I could get into trouble and thicker stock would give me a margin of error to make corrections. Now I think i may just be wasting material. Thoughts?
 
It depends on the knife and handle shape for me. Paring knives, 3 finger Skinners, and anything with front and back bolsters I'll generally use 1/4"
Chef's knives, full sized hunters or Skinners, and knives with only a front guard or bolster I'll use 3/8

Also apart from micarta and things such as bone and stag, I'll always order blocks and cut them to size myself. I like having the option of being able to do either a full tang or hidden tang. Plus offcuts of blocks while cutting to length can make great spacers for stacked handle knives. Every now and then I'll make puukkos entirely out of scraps from other knives, and they look great
 
I use liners on most knives as well so 3/8" ends up a little over sized. I buy more blocks than scales so I can cut them to whatever would work best. I have a thin kerf table saw and can usually get two sets out of a 1 1/2" block when necessary.
Like Geoff, I generally use 1/4" for paring knives. I find that around 0.3" works for everything else.
 
I buy .25" almost exclusively in the composites. They always end up .312 or better with liners.
 
1/4" and sometimes I use liners.
Sometimes a little larger, but not too often.
 
I usually buy my wood by the plank and cut scales from that. sometimes 3/8", sometimes 1/2" or 5/8" depending on the handle style. I hear at Blade this year, folks are charging $100 for a book matched pair of stabilized ambrosia/spalted maple scales. earlier this spring I paid $100 for a book matched pair of ambrosia/spalted maple slabs. 3" thick, 25" tapering to 15" wide, each piece over 5' long. either I got a steal or someone is overcharging a bit.
 
5/16" is perfect for me and 1/4" works good with .060" liners. The more knives I make the thinner my handles get.
 
Bushcraft knives. If they made Micarta in 1/2", or 7/16", or 12mm, I would buy that more than 3/8". I can buy Tufnol in thicker stock, but it only comes in 23"x11.25" sheets with canvas at equivalent of $62 for 10mm and the 12mm fine weave at $106. And it only comes in toffee brown. Sure, I can glue up liners to add thickness to the 3/8, but getting liner thickness G10 isn't so easy here and sometimes I just want to make a plain working knife that fills the hand.
 
thin as possible,
the rest wastes material and time,
so i like 1/4"and sometimes less if using a liner

this is a gripe I have about wood blocks, they tend too be too big for bowie style handles and much of it goes to waste
 
3/8" is the most common here, but 5/16" would work for many applications. Larger knives like choppers tend to be 7/16" or 1/2". It often comes down to that big butt...

IMO, 1/4" is too thin for an ergonomic handle for most knives and would need a liner. Larger handles tend to lead to reduced fatigue during extended cutting.
 
I like to use quarter inch with liners of up to 1/8 inch. I typically sculpt my handles heavily.
 
what kind of knife are you making? I make kitchen blades. a smaller paring/utility knife would have a finished handle that is 1"h x 3/4"t, so 1/2" thick scales. a chef's knife or cleaver, 1 3/8"h x 1 1/16"t minimum, so 5/8" thick scales
 
HSC /// said:
thin as possible,
the rest wastes material and time,
so i like 1/4"and sometimes less if using a liner

this is a gripe I have about wood blocks, they tend too be too big for bowie style handles and much of it goes to waste
Click to expand...

I keep going back to full sized blocks.

I tried to sell a bunch if scales from when I first started doing this, 10 or 15 sets of 2 by .25 by 5.5 figured cocobolo scales at low prices and it never moved. If I sell a block of 1.125 by 1.75 by 5.5 at a higher price, it sells much faster. Haven't yet been able to hit the market for small blocks and thin scales.
 
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