Anyone ever use knife scales in their projects

[Garasaki]

I've been checking things like these out on ebay for a while

http://cgi.ebay.com/BOOKMATCHED-SET-...QQcmdZViewItem

http://cgi.ebay.com/bookmatched-mapl...QQcmdZViewItem



They are fairly affordable and I think a person could use them basically like inlays or panels in a small ornate box that could turn out pretty neat. Or inlay them, bookmatched, in the center of a small table or something. Know what I mean??

Anyway, anyone else ever gone down that road, thought about it, tried it, etc? Any obvious reasons not too? Is the wood so unstable that it'd break apart after a few years?

Thoughts? Input? Comments? Insults?

[Jeffrey Schronce]

This wood should be very stable. The photos you have of the boards below are just stunning. Problem for me is the 5 5/8" x 1 3/4" x 7/16" size as my projects are usually pretty large (must be compensating for something . . . LOL). I mean these boards are small than a dollar bill. It would have to be a pretty small table.

Like I said, though I'd love to have a few board feet of the stuff but can only fathom how much $ that would be!

[Ken Massingale]

This wood should be very stable. The photos you have of the boards below are just stunning. Problem for me is the 5 5/8" x 1 3/4" x 7/16" size as my projects are usually pretty large (must be compensating for something . . . LOL). I mean these boards are small than a dollar bill. It would have to be a pretty small table.

Like I said, though I'd love to have a few board feet of the stuff but can only fathom how much $ that would be!

It's amazing the prices for wood when the label 'knife scale' is attached to it. I'm making some knives and find it normal for 3/8 by 1 1/2 by 5 Cocobolo scales to be $20 a pair at knife parts suppliers. Heck Woodcraft charges $6 for the same size and a 6 by 6 by 3" block is $30, and that's a lot of scales, and we all know WC ain't the cheapest place to buy wood.

[Garasaki]

I mean these boards are small than a dollar bill. It would have to be a pretty small table.

A person would have to find just right size.

I was thinking of using those as panels on the sides of a jewelery box, or in the lid of a jewelery box, or well let me explain my thoughts on the table

Say your making an end table or small coffee table. Maybe say it's 24x24. I was thinking it might be cool to have outside band, say 4" wide, our of maybe cherry or walnut, then perhaps maple on the inside (so that'd be a piece thats 16x16). Inside that piece, you could inlay the knife scales in the center of that, maybe build a "frame" of the cherry/walnut (just like an inch wide) to provide visual deliniation and tie it in a little more.

Just a thought. Really I'm most interested in using them for small decorative boxes. I've seen some that are like 2"x2"x6"...those could be resawn to produce (4) 1/2"x2"x6" panels that could make up a nice lil box.

As for the price, I don't really think they are that outrageous. 10 or 15 bucks for some highly figured wood that really makes or breaks a far out, neato project aint too bad in my book.