hidden tang

Joined
Sep 8, 2006
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im having problems forging the small tang, i dont have a fuller or anything like that, just an anvil, i dont know exactly how to go about forging the tang... i tried steping it down on each side on the horn but got kinda frustrated after that and walked away from it to clear my mind. do i just step it down and then draw it out? thanks guys
 
Its been a long time since I forged a tag with out the use of one of these

PDRM1957.JPG


If you plan on hand forging this tool is a real problem solver. Pretty simple to make. No welding, its just drilled and bolted together.

If I can remember correctly I use to step the tang done on the flat face of the anvil and then work it out using a straight peen.
 
I've been trying to figure this out too. So far, I've seen a couple of basic approaches, both require a double offset (if you will) to establish the tang shoulders. If you have good hammer control, you can do it by simply hanging the blade over the anvil and offsetting the tang with hammer blows. If you're like me, and keep hitting in different spots with each blow, than some sort of fullering approach works better. Thus, something like the device Raymond uses.

You put your blade in between the two fullers (in this case they're rigged up using a bolt as a pivot point) and whack away. You can get much cleaner shoulder indents (well, for us wayward hammerers, that is). There are various ways to rig up the fullers, such as this pivoting one. The sliding guillotine, or blacksmith's helper, is another, as is the more traditional spring fuller.

Once you have the offset shoulders established than it's just a matter of drawing out the tang with basic blacksmithing use of hammer and anvil.
 
cool, after the new layer of cement dries on the inside of my forge ima try that out. thanks guys
 
i have never forged-or seen it done. in the picture is the top flat steel bar being hit while the tang sits inbetween? thanks
 
Yes, the top bar is struck with the hammer. Godzilla was made with two 5/8 X 2" 1065. The top bar was hardened and then drawn back.

Mark, No problem about making your own. Just use a different name......
 
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