hidden tang with no pins?

Joined
Sep 9, 2001
Messages
428
how do you keep the handle attached? press fit? lots of epoxy?

something like this...

orig.jpg


made by Frank Bradley. stole the pic from CKDforums.com

tips from the pros?
 
thanks Frank!

thats exactly what i was looking for.

you do make some beautiful knives. keep it up...
 
go to the mad dog knives site http://www.mdk.idv.tw and click the super tour (handle preparation part). mad dogs have full tangs that are fully-insulated from the hand: no metal pommels or spacers, even the hilt is non-metallic. the full tang of the blade has a large hole near the end. when this is epoxied into the two handle halves, the hole is filled with epoxy which, when cured, becomes a large hidden pin.
 
If you skeleton the tang or drill enough holes through it and well score the inside of the handle material, so that dips or valleys are cut within it, and you use a proper bonding material and the bonding material does indeed bond well with that handle material - it will stay together without shifting. It would also not hurt to score the edges of the tang with a file before heat treat - in a manner so as to cut saw like teeth into it with the saw like edges pointing toward the guard or bolster and being sure the epoxy fills their voids and the tang holes when assembled.

rlinger
 
i suppose you could make the tang get larger towards the butt of the knife and mortise out the handle material the same, that way once the two halves were bonded (not glued ;)) then the blade couldnt possibly shift or come out w/out breaking the handle in two.

kinda like this...

nevermind, my text drawing sucked. just think of a stick tang shaped like a small L (a foot coming off of the bottom part)

or maybe just epoxy the crap out of it.
 
Do you mean ripping the handle and epoxying it back together as two seperate parts? The grain will never match well enough to be your caliber of work.

Use a wood auger and drill to the depth and width you need for the stick tang into the handle materal. Work it with files to cut pits and valleys into the perameter of the drill out for epoxy (JB Weld or use atomised steel as an agregate mixed with another epoxy) to flow into - as written about above. (you will probably need file work to enlarge the hole enough for the tang anyhow.)

Please know I am a novice knife maker but base most of my opinion on work done before getting into knives. Also know that before I made my first full tang, and I have only done two, I asked right here from you guys how to make the hole for the tang.

Roger
 
Terry Primos does rip the handles in two then mill them out. you really cant see the lines between the two on his...of course his skill level is WAAAAY above my own.
 
I did not mean bonding lines. Does the grain match up?? You loose the width of a saw blade, at a minimum.

This is going to be a point I will loose on here. There are too many experts that are better than I that will argue against me on this. I will stand on my opinion.

Roger
 
no, your right, at a minimum you will lose the kerf plus whatever needs to be milled off to make the slab flat again. im sure its more noticable on some woods than others. who knows. guess ill have to try both ways and see how they turn out :)
 
On the knife you have pictured the handle is attached by having a nut silver braxed on the inside of the buttcap,then either a bent tang with a threaded end onit--or a bolt solver braved to the tang and then bent enough to match the buttcap--or one other way is to thin the end of the tang and then put a cut in the end of a threaded bolt that fits over the thinner tang then drill a hole through both and insert a pin and slightly peen it making a movable joint that will allow for the buttcap to be at a angle and still thread onto the tang.Then when ready to fit up the handle for the last time,just fill the handle with epoxy then screw on the buttcap and that sucker isn't coming off ,no way,no how..

What you are describing with the two halves is a mortise tang construction,Yes you will see a definate grain difference unless you allow enough material and the grain is such that you can match it back up (at least close) but this is not looked down on as long as the seam is straight and inline with the blade.

If you don't want a pin in the handle and are using a material such as stag,do as Rlinger has suggested,and if you want a buttcap just siver braze a screw on the buttcap and then drill a hole for it to fit into and epoxy it in also,this will last a lifetime also.

Just my learnings and not the only way to do things..
Bruce
 
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