Burning handle for hidden tang

H

Hesparus

Joined
Oct 31, 2004
Messages
1,442
Hi Everyone,

I'd like to try my hand at doing a hidden tang. I'm not confident in my ability to do a good job cutting a good hole through the handle, so I'm planning on burning the tang through. I haven't been able to find a lot of information on this, so I was wondering if anyone had any tips for me (e.g. woods, methods, limitations on tang shape/size).
Thanks,
Chris
 
I'm a little curious about this statement:

I'm not confident in my ability to do a good job cutting a good hole through the handle
Click to expand...

Why do you lack confidence? Have you attempted this before and failed? It's actually pretty straightforward. I've done it multiple times now and I'm just a beginner.

If you're concerned that you'll screw up an expensive piece of stabilized wood, you might try practicing on cheap wood first. The experience won't be dramatically different.

One thing I would recommend, though, is to plan and execute the drilling while you still have flat surfaces to work with. In other words, don't shape the handle THEN try drilling. That's possible (and I've done it), but it is MUCH easier to get the drill bit to behave when the block has flat surfaces to rest against the drill press.

- Greg
 
I have not tried to burn a hole, seems kinda complicated to me. Drilling is a matter of planning, drawing some guidlines outside the block is really helpfull in getting alignment. Good Luck.
 
tryppyr:
I haven't tried it yet, but I've never been good with wood or with making things fit together precisely — the burning method seems like it would solve both of these problems, and it seems like a lower-tech method. I plan on making myself learn the other method in the future, but this way seems like what I want to try right now. If it turns out that it won't solve my problems then I'll try the other way.

- Chris
 
Hesparus said:
Hi Everyone,

I'd like to try my hand at doing a hidden tang. I'm not confident in my ability to do a good job cutting a good hole through the handle, so I'm planning on burning the tang through. I haven't been able to find a lot of information on this, so I was wondering if anyone had any tips for me (e.g. woods, methods, limitations on tang shape/size).
Thanks,
Chris
Click to expand...

It's very simple and straight forward, prior to heat treat, drill your long hole, in the wood. (about 1/4 - 3/8 dia) Heat the tang to red hot and push the tang into the wood, It may take a few times depending on if the tang is tapered or not. :D
 
Actually, burning in has been made for a long time, and for good reasons. A properly burned-in grip has a much better fit than a drilled one.

You have to drill a pilot hole, which has to be somewhat smaller than the tang.

Now, the trick to a properly burnt-in grip is taking it easy and taking the time to do it properly.
AVOID using a red-hot tang. That's way far too hot! It will not only burn in the tang, but will extensively char the wood on the inside making it brittle (or, with some woods, starting cracks that will become apparent with time).
So, heat the tang just enough to make the wood smoke and let it slide in a short length. Then heat it again and repeat as many times as necessary.
Dont force the tang in, as you could split the wood.
Take it easy, and do it in a ventialted area. Some woods release noxious fumes, and stabilized woods release stuff you definitely don't want to breathe.

A properly burnt in tang will use resin as a binding between the tightly fitting grip and tang, while ina drilled or charred grip it will have to act as a filler as well, resulting in a weaker bond.

Perhaps modern epoxyes are so tough it doesn't matter, but you'll know you did it properly.
Also, I experimented with hot glue. I melted some on the hot tang and pushed it into the grip. I did this on a two handed sword I got rough forged from a polish smith and finished myself and used for sword fighting training for more than two years, and is as firm and solid now as it was when I first finished it.
While some epoxies may get a little brittle, hot glue has a gummy, tough texture that will endure a LOT of impact and vibration.
 
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Thanks for the feedback, guys. Are there any limitations about the shape of the tang? I know that a lot of older blades that had burned handles had a very narrow tang, but is this required?

Chris
 
The Japanase have been doing handle burn-ins for ions and still practice this for their wa-handle installations.

The process is to first drill a hole slightly smaller than the tang and then to pre-burn in the slot to the desired tang's shape and size using a tang-like poker as seen in this picture...

sakai-japanese-knives-49-1000.jpg


Then the tang is positioned into a small furnace that heats it just enough to finish the burn in process. A couple of light taps on the base of the handle seats the tang tight and then the knife is put aside while the wood and tang cool.

handleInstall.jpg


After this they are very secure together and will need a fair bit of deliberate force to disengage from one another. Personally I'm not interested in this method of handle installation but it's proven very well suited for applications where a handle may eventually need replacement.

Check YouTube for Murray Carter's videos and you can see him burning on a handle or two for his kitchen knives.
 
Something worth mentioning regarding the Japanese they use a soft wood for their handles called "ho" which is very much like balsa. This wood burns easily and moves when pressure is exerted through tapping. When they want to burn on a more elaborate handle, like say ebony, they will drill out the center of the ebony piece and insert a ho wood core. I've known a few people stateside that have tried to burn in tangs to hardwoods, both stabilized and not, with poor results so inserting a softer wood core might be the ticket here if one was to attempt this.

Here is an example of a Japanese knife handle I split open a few years ago. You can see the two different materials...

P1010006-1.jpg
 
I tried a while back on some cherry burl but used a piece of mild steel ground down to the same size and shape of the tang to do the burning with since I already had my guard fitted. I charred the wood pretty bad as mentioned above and didn't quite trust it. Some folks have good methods of doing this and have better results but I'll just stick with drilling. It helps me to taper the tang and outline the tang on the outside of the block then clamp in vise and tilt the block to where the bit is in line with the outline of the tang. then do the other side. Tapering the tang's width allows the drill holes to meet at the bottom of the block. Then I connect the two holes drilling with a smaller bit. Then chuck your bigger bit back up and stick down in the bigger end holes and with a little side pressure you can rake out the rest of the wood. The smaller holes just takes out most of the wood in the middle and kind of acts as a guide. You didn't mention having one but this of course is easier with a drill press.
 
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