Cats are such individual and unique animals I think it's hard to generalize about scratching activity. I declawed my first cat as it was a choice between that and not being allowed to have her (rental agreement). She seemed to have no problems with it. I never declawed any of the three I've had after that. One did scratch things a little bit, the other two, not at all. I've heard that if they have access to something wooden, such as an old 2 x 4 they won't bother with anything else, but I can't vouch for that, and a door frame might also fit that bill, which wouldn't be good. Declawing a cat is actually amputation of their toes, so a vet that says it's no big deal isn't a vet I'd care to use. Still there may be circumstances where it's the least bad alternative,but I think that would be rare.