Pretty shorty after beginning making knives I was rightfully hounded to start tapering tangs by my tutors here at Shop Talk. It was not until a post by Mike Hull that it dawned on me how better to do it. My very first tang tapering was done by drilling many holes to relieve steel area from belt. Mike explained that gouging the tang by belt grinding prior to taper was much simpler. That was some couple years ago. As we all know there are several advantages to tang tapering, appearence, over all balance and fact of workmanship, and perhaps another or two I fail to remember at moment.
My comment: I have a Norman Coote 2 X 72 with a 10 inch wheel platen and how I gouge my tangs is to roll the belt a little and use that portion to gouge the tang out prior to taper. It is a most trying experience in that I must run the 50 grit at a rather high speed and the big wheel does not give much resolution - so one must really learn a touch if not to run past bounderies not to be gouged (don't go past the ricasso but get close to it). It takes a touch based on experience but trying none the less. In addition if you allow the tang to get away from your control it can dig into the belt and split or fray it (danger). I have or am learning to do this well enough with my limited equipment even though this step is one of my most attentive steps in knife making - just short of bevel grinding. The way I like or have taught myself is use the 10 inch wheel with a little rolled over to grind a strip and another until I end up with about 3 to 4 strips of gouge running full length from most shallow at ricasso to deepest at tang. At tang I attempt to gouge to just short of depth of scribe lines on tang end. Question follows below.
My question: For newbies how would you best advise them to gouge tangs for the purpose of tang tapering. In the mean time I too will be listening in to see if I can do it better to.
Thanks.
RL
My comment: I have a Norman Coote 2 X 72 with a 10 inch wheel platen and how I gouge my tangs is to roll the belt a little and use that portion to gouge the tang out prior to taper. It is a most trying experience in that I must run the 50 grit at a rather high speed and the big wheel does not give much resolution - so one must really learn a touch if not to run past bounderies not to be gouged (don't go past the ricasso but get close to it). It takes a touch based on experience but trying none the less. In addition if you allow the tang to get away from your control it can dig into the belt and split or fray it (danger). I have or am learning to do this well enough with my limited equipment even though this step is one of my most attentive steps in knife making - just short of bevel grinding. The way I like or have taught myself is use the 10 inch wheel with a little rolled over to grind a strip and another until I end up with about 3 to 4 strips of gouge running full length from most shallow at ricasso to deepest at tang. At tang I attempt to gouge to just short of depth of scribe lines on tang end. Question follows below.
My question: For newbies how would you best advise them to gouge tangs for the purpose of tang tapering. In the mean time I too will be listening in to see if I can do it better to.
Thanks.
RL
