Thunderstruck Knife Scales ShopTalk

ThunderstruckStudios said:
TLR TLR thanks for your input. That's 2 or 3 votes for K&G, 0 votes for "DIY" stabilizing. You guys made convincing arguments for the necessity of stabilizing.

I'll plan on cutting down the existing blocks I have to 3/8" width and sending them in to K&G for stabilizing.
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As I said, I've been hesitant using hybrid blocks but I like what you are doing with yours. They are a bit different than most of what you see. Let us know when you get it figured out and I'll give them a try.
 
I would recommend sending blocks to K&G, then splitting them into scales upon return. I've had 1" - 1 1/4" blocks warp from the stabilizing process. If you send 3/8" scales, they may warp bad enough they won't be usable.
 
I am guessing for every person here in shoptalk who says homebrew stabilization is fine there will be 99 others that say professional stabilization is the only way.
They look real cool but being some of your "figure" is shallow, will it be gone after shaping handle ? Thats a concern. Looking forward to seeing how this turns out, Good luck.
 
Don't forget about all the types of wood that don't need stabilization. Not sure how dense oily wood would affect the burning though.
 
Spalted said:
I am guessing for every person here in shoptalk who says homebrew stabilization is fine there will be 99 others that say professional stabilization is the only way.
They look real cool but being some of your "figure" is shallow, will it be gone after shaping handle ? Thats a concern. Looking forward to seeing how this turns out, Good luck.
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In my experience you have it backwards.

Blade forums is going to have an abnormally high percentage of people voting for pro stabilizing.

Other areas will have more people who think home brew is acceptable.

What is important is that if you end up doing both, CLEARLY label everything. If you mix them up and send someone home done as K&G that will shred your reputation in a heart beat.
 
Read what I said again Ben , we are saying the same thing
 
Yeah I will only get stabilized wood, K&G preferred as well.
 
Greenberg Woods Greenberg Woods Thanks for the tips. I'm definitely thinking that I'll stick only to professional stabilizing at this point. That way I don't have to worry about keeping track of two different grades of stabilizing, and everyone gets a high quality product.

Britt_Askew Britt_Askew It is possible to sand away some of the shallow figures. It really depends on how contoured the finished handle is. As a first step to address this, we're going to make thinner scale blanks (3/8" or even 1/4") and try to drive the patterns through the wood more.
 
What kind of wattage do you use to do this in the wood? Is there a purge gas? Duty cycle? Frequency? PWM?

I know absolutely nothing about engraving lasers but have 6,000w at my disposal if I could figure out how to not vaporize my wood :D Actually would love to figure out how to cut leather on the thing mostly.
 
Checking back in here: we took your advice and are almost done with a new batch of scales/blocks. We sent around 11 lbs of wood to K&G for stabilizing, including acacia, walnut, caribbean rosewood, and mexican ebony. Some had resin already poured and some were just burned and brushed out. We just got it back last week and we're now working on filling in the rest with resin. We'll post back here when we have some available for sale.

Quick question: right now we have almost all blocks at 5" x 1-1/2" x 1". Would you prefer them sold already re-sawn and flattened to 3/8" thick each? Or is it better to offer the one piece block with the option of re-sawing?
K&G_Scales.jpg
 
I think most vendors offer the block sizes with the option to split it on request.
 
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