Briar Scales? (Or at least the off-brand equivalent)

[Broccoli Man]

I'm thinking of having my Le Grelot rescaled at some point (the factory kingwood pieces look great individually, but the two sides don't match up very well). I was thinking that briar might look pretty sharp, but I don't seem to see it offered as an option on any restoration sites I've looked at (though admittedly, I've only checked a few). Is it considered a suitable scale material? Are there other woods of similar appearance that are more commonly used for this purpose? Basically, I'm a total nut for bird's eye, but maple is a bit light for my tastes. What should I look for?

[honed]

There is a plethora of various woods that are usable for scales.

Briar is IIRC an anomaly that occurs on some other tree, like a growth of sorts. Makes it expensive & probably hard to find big enough pieces.
Burl woods, like amboyna would perhaps suit you or other types of burls, though they need to be stabilized beforehand because of their internal structure being ot weak.
That goes for almost all types of burl/root woods.

"Plain" hardwoods almost always work.
As long as they are hard enough ~+1000 JANKA, you are good to go.

Starting point;
http://www.wood-database.com/

[Broccoli Man]

Thanks for the link! That site seems to have a lot of good info. The briar I mean is the kind from the tree heath, the sort used in pipes. I think you're probably right about the expense, though. It's my understanding that the vast majority of briar wood is riddled with imperfections of one kind or another, I suppose from pushing its way through the soil. So to find a flawless piece of sufficient length to make a pair of scales might cost a pretty penny. The amboyna has a beautiful grain pattern as well, I'll have to look into that.

I think I saw a picture on a website once of some curly maple scales that had been dyed to a darker shade. Is this also a common practice?

[otto76]

I picked this up at Woodcraft recently, it's Black Palm:

I picked it because something about the grain reminded me of Bird's Eye maple which I also like a lot. It is a much darker color too. It is supposed to be splintery and hard to work with though.

Also, just checked "The Wood Database" out, looks like a great resource.

[Pilotgod]

The imperfections is one reason, but also, briar is the from the heart of the heath tree where the trunk and roots come together. This is not a large tree like a cedar or elm, but rather a good size bush. As such this heart is rarely over about 5-6 inches across. This means that to find a briar with a good enough length of wood to make a scale without imperfections, you need to get an uncut block. The cost to take a good block like that away from the artisan pipe makers is going to be pretty high, but I admit, decent briar scales on a vintage blade would look pretty darn cool.