Hidden tang via stock removal

Justin Schmidt

Justin Schmidt

Joined
Feb 18, 2016
Messages
2,209
How should I go about this? Here's what I have drawn up.
lZAzW1T.jpg

Plan on doing a 4 inch handle so nothing too big. Should I do anything different or just make sure it's square and dive in?
 
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Personally I’d make the tang more rectangular and move the pin hole back a bit. Otherwise looks great! Can always use a shorter tang as well since it’s gonna be epoxied pinned and surrounded by g10/epoxy/stabilized wood etc
 
I suggest not grinding all that material away, rough out with a saw. Straighten up with grinder. But otherwise looks ok.
Have fun.
 
I regularly recommend to new makers that they leave extra metal in the tang when working the blade. After HT you can draw the temper on the tang with a torch and grind it to the exact size and shape you want. Unless you have carbide drills, you always want to drill your tang holes before HT.
 
Yes, as stated, add a small radius in the corners of the tang/ricasso junction. You may want to add a small radius at the choil as well, at least until it is heat treated. Put as much tang into the handle as you can reasonably fit. It looks like you will have about 2.25" of tang in a proposed 4" handle. I'd put something closer to 3.5" of tang in there. Sketch out a copy of that blade and tang with your handle shape as well. It's much easier to plan how much tang you can fit in the handle when you can visualize it. Also, if you have something like a finger contour or other feature planned for your handle, having it drawn out can help you decide where the pin should go. You may want to align the pin with the peak in the finger groove or some other feature as a composition consideration. Drawing out the handle also helps in deciding what shape the tang needs to be. If you are fitting a guard over your tang then you'll want a slight taper on the sides. The shape of the profile of the tang depends on the shape of the handle. If you will be making a fairly straight handle then give the tang less taper (or just slight taper) top to bottom, unless you are tuning the balance of the knife. If you are planning a handle with some drop in the handle profile then a taper like you have drawn helps. Obviously, you don't want your tang protruding out of the top of your handle. You will more clearly see what you need once the handle is drawn.
 
Alright thank you everyone. I'll radius the corners and make the tang a tad longer. I'll draw out the handle as well and probably just post update pics here
 
Looks good. The only thing I might change is eliminate the sharp change of direction on the top of the blade and make it a fair curve from butt to tip on the top. That's just a personal preference, not necessarily what you are trying to achieve.
Tim
 
One thing to consider is that you will not get a nice round contour at the front of the handle like you get on Scales due to the back of the ricasso butting directly to your wood which should be dead flat 90 degrees. A piece of brass or stainless fitted to the tang at the ricasso helps protect the wood at that junction and gives a better finished look. I think you can also leave a little more material on the top side of your tang since you will not be removing as much handle material as you do the bottom side.
 
Thanks again busto you've helped me tremendously lately.
I just read through Bruce bumps hidden tang WIP again.
I might have to change this to a mortise handle. I have a box of wood I got from @timos- about a year ago but it's unstabilized stuff. I have a sheet of .500 mircata and some .250 mircata and g10 I've thought about using.
 
valknut said:
Thanks again busto you've helped me tremendously lately.
I just read through Bruce bumps hidden tang WIP again.
I might have to change this to a mortise handle. I have a box of wood I got from @timos- about a year ago but it's unstabilized stuff. I have a sheet of .500 mircata and some .250 mircata and g10 I've thought about using.
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What type wood? Is it a designated "Hardwood" that has not been stabilized? I'm not sure why you are changing the plan mid stream if you have blocks of wood.
 
Busto said:
What type wood? Is it a designated "Hardwood" that has not been stabilized? I'm not sure why you are changing the plan mid stream if you have blocks of wood.
Click to expand...

Well I have some koa, teak, curly maple, I believe purple heart and one or 2 more I can't think of
 
Did some work last night. Blade roughed out.
7vjaTEd.jpg

Tried to true everything up. Then poor man surface ground it, aka used a magnet and the platen. Once that was done it got a dykem paint job so I could grind the bevels.
I do this Tim Hancock style with a Teflon push stick and the work rest. I jb welded some 1/4 uhmw to the work rest so it's easier to slide across.
hRtDLDs.jpg

I don't have a contact wheel to ACTUALLY do it like mr Hancock but I free hand the 45's then finnish it with the push stick.
This is at 60 grit. I take it up to 220.
R6nm9fT.jpg

Got excited a 2am when I was working so I just went ahead and drilled the handle block and started filing it in. I made a very ghetto broach with a triangle file that I cut some teeth into and ground one of the corners down so it's a flat file now.
9WbRA9e.jpg

Ok so here is my problem now. I'm still filing out the slot in the handle but it's alot bigger than the tang itself.
gmkWLuz.jpg

Should I just slap a spacer material on there? I don't have any metal for guard material. I have some . 500 canvas mircata I could use.
 
Use the Micarta for a Guard. Have you drilled for the pin hole yet? One Trick I have used is to Mix up Epoxy and fill the cavity with the mixture....HOWEVER before you get carried away make SURE that you WAX the Tang or use Vaseline on the tang so once the tang is in place and the epoxy is set up you can pull the tang out! This is an old trick I have used with "Acraglas" on handles and on Rifle Barrels when making a Bedding Block for the rifle.
 
Busto said:
Use the Micarta for a Guard. Have you drilled for the pin hole yet? One Trick I have used is to Mix up Epoxy and fill the cavity with the mixture....HOWEVER before you get carried away make SURE that you WAX the Tang or use Vaseline on the tang so once the tang is in place and the epoxy is set up you can pull the tang out! This is an old trick I have used with "Acraglas" on handles and on Rifle Barrels when making a Bedding Block for the rifle.
Click to expand...
Why would I want to pull the tang out after epoxying it up?
 
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