Minimum Usable Dimensions

I use a combination of natural and manmade materials and try to make the most beautiful and highest quality knife scales available and each one is individually made, by me, entirely by hand.  As such, they are not a precision component and will have variations among them, and even an individual set of scales can vary in length, width, and appearance.

...So I provide the 'minimum usable dimensions' for each set of scales.

The scales themselves may be larger than the dimension listed, but I only measure the parts that you can actually use and don't include chipped or 'sunken' corners or portions thinner than the listed minimum thickness. 

Early on I went to great pains to trim any 'bad spots' off of each scale, but I had too many knifemaking experiences where I was trying to fit a handle to a knife, and it was just 1/8" too short. If I hadn't been obsessed with making each scale a perfectly squared up rectangle, and cut off a corner that I wasn't going to end up using anyway, I would've had a perfect fit despite the minor defect.

Now, I just square them up the best I can, slit them with a bandsaw and sand the faces enough to be able to see the pattern. Most of these scales are big enough that there are a lot of different ways to lay them out and I'll give you the most material I can so you have all of the best options open to you. If there's a 'bad' spot that you just can't work around, let me know and we'll work something out.

Sometimes they are thicker on one end than the other.  I will list the smaller of the two dimensions. I've considered milling them down to make perfect rectangles but many of the scales are much bigger than needed for a knife handle and some makers use the cutoffs for other items such as lanyard beads, jewelry or keychains.  They appreciate having all the thickness they can get so now I just try to sand the 'backside' (side that will be next to tang) flat and leave it at that. These are not intended to be precision components but they are guaranteed to be suitable for knife or tool handles.

...Even so, if you get them and are disappointed, I will work with you to see that you feel happier about it, whatever that might take.

In the following example, a knife scale with a total length of 6" has a 1/4" chipped/sunken corner so its'minimum usable dimension' would be listed as 5 3/4".