Forged Tang Strength Question

[Greg Covington]

Here is an interesting question:

I have seen plenty of pics demonstrating the grain flow of a forged blade and discussions about the strength of the forged tang. Since the grain flow follows the curvature of the tang rather than running end out if the tang were just cut from barstock, the argument is that the blade is stronger in this way for a number of reasons.

I see where this applies to a blade which has been fully quenched to harden the blade from the tip to the tang....but does this reasoning apply to a blade which is edge quenched only and the tang, spine, and most of the ricasso left soft?

I know it saves steel forging it out and you also can forge in distal tapers which adds to the flex strength...but this aside, what do ya'll think?

 

[Ed Caffrey]

I certainly think it adds to the strength of the tang. Anytime you can make the grain flow with the profile of the entire blade, added strength will result. I questioned this too, and did several experiments to prove/disprove the theory. Stock removal blades from the same bar of material showed less strength than those that had the tang forged. By this I mean the tangs would not take the nearly the same amount of flex that their forged counter parts would. Of course the fully hardened tangs took more to flex than the edge quenched ones, but the end results were the same. I also learned that the slightest radius to the blade/tang juncture will prevent a tang from breaking off. I had never imagined that just by very slightly radiusing the sharp corners, so much could be gained.