Hidden Tangs and Hidden Pin questions

go mike

go mike

Joined
Dec 5, 2008
Messages
1,597
I searched in the forums a little, and could not find answers to these two questions:

1. How do you drill a curved hole for a curved hidden tang, like for stag handles etc?

2. How are hidden pins put in, and do they hold well?
 
I've never done a through-tang knife, so if that's the question then I can't answer, but if you mean a stub tang, the answer for me is that they are not curved. The hidden pins work as friction against the bonding agent in the knife. It dries as a solid material, but if there were nothing but a straight, tapered tang in there, it would work loose quickly.

Another option for doing pins on a hidden tang knife and cutting out some hassle is to glue up the whole thing and then use a carbide drill to drill through handle and tang to pin your knife.
 
On a stick tang knife the hole is not really curved usually. Lets say your using stag. You drill a hole, centered on each end, until they meet kinda in the middle. It depends on where the curve is in the stag. Then clean out the hole with files or better yet a broach if you have one, or can make one. look in this thread for the stick tang stuff. http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=526045

Hidden pins are the same as normal pins except the holes are not drilled all the way through the scales. Lets say you have a full tang knife with the holes drilled in it already. To drill the pin holes in the scales I simply place one scale down on the drill press table and drill through the holes in the knife tang into and through the scale once for each pin. I would then flip the knife over and repeat for the other side. Now for hidden pins do the same thing but stop before the drill bit goes all the way through. You will then have to make pins that fit inside those little cavities. Finally epoxy it all together. I will see if I can find some pics to help you out.
 
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Thanks William! I searched for a while but couldn't find much on the hidden pins, and the way you explained the stick tang made some sense. I'll have to let it sink in for a while to fully understand, though.
 
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