-
The BladeForums.com 2024 Traditional Knife is ready to order! See this thread for details: https://www.bladeforums.com/threads/bladeforums-2024-traditional-knife.2003187/
Price is$300$250 ea (shipped within CONUS). If you live outside the US, I will contact you after your order for extra shipping charges.
Order here: https://www.bladeforums.com/help/2024-traditional/ - Order as many as you like, we have plenty.
HIDDEN TANGS ?
- Thread starter number41
- Start date
Bawanna
Moderator
- Joined
- Dec 19, 2012
- Messages
- 10,333
They are square, and quite robust. I've never heard of a tang breaking. Handles sometimes fail after years of hard use but they usually hold up well too. HI's are generally Rat Tail and have a cap peened over on the end. I tried to find a picture of one but failed.
- Joined
- Aug 26, 2010
- Messages
- 7,751
Theres a few X-ray pics floating around the website that will show you the structure but if your concerned about breaking then Bawannas right. They are robust all right. Id say bombproof! They taper down about ricasso width down to about 3/8 inch at the pommel then they are capped and peened. They are even stronger than the traditional short tang.
- Joined
- Feb 23, 1999
- Messages
- 4,855
Nothing is certain. Improperly heat treated tangs can and do break. A good reason to test your knife with some hard chops prior to taking it into a situation where you need to rely on it. If the tang is brittle it will fail during the testing.
I believe you're referring to the junction between the tang and the main part of the blade. If the junction is squared-off it becomes a stress point. I have one HI blade, a WWII model by Sher kami, 19" overall length, that came with no handle, so the tang construction is visible. As you can see in the pics below, the junction is rounded off, though a bit crudely. The tang is also very thick where it meets the main blade, 5/16" in this case.
Just for fun, I've also included a couple of pics of my two North American Wood Turtles, with the male pursuing the female, as he often does. Sometimes she walks around for an hour carrying him on her back.
Just for fun, I've also included a couple of pics of my two North American Wood Turtles, with the male pursuing the female, as he often does. Sometimes she walks around for an hour carrying him on her back.
Very clever, this is so true. Every blade you buy needs to be tested... pretty much the same thing with firearms and everthing else for that matter.
That tang is huge... thanks for the pics
- Joined
- Aug 17, 2003
- Messages
- 3,409
Note that they do vary their positions along the stack to alleviate boredom and prevent muscle cramps and wastage. The intergalactic turtle support corps rotates turtles periodically , they get an annual 30 days leave time to do whatever they desire. They are also highly paid for their important work. They are allowed to use their 5G cell phones to communicate with their families while on duty. Their feet are padded to keep from damaging their assigned planet. Did you think the earth was the only one supported by turtles? Every planet everywhere is, the demands on the ITS Corps is huge. Only mature turtles of above average demeanour and intelligence, as well as supreme strength and endurance are accepted into the corps. They start off with smaller planets and get assigned larger ones as they mature and gain experience in the mechanics of accurate manoeuvring the precise planetary orbits.
- Joined
- Feb 23, 1999
- Messages
- 4,855
I believe the pictorial above may be slightly misleading as it omits any depiction of elephants. Check the Wikipedia article as reference.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Elephant
It is quite plausible, nay, probable, that instead of “turtles all the way down” there are alternating layers of turtles and elephants.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Elephant
It is quite plausible, nay, probable, that instead of “turtles all the way down” there are alternating layers of turtles and elephants.
- Joined
- Aug 17, 2003
- Messages
- 3,409
No elephants. That would be silly. They do not have the stamina.
Stephen Hawking incorporates the saying into the beginning of his 1988 book A Brief History of Time:
A well-known scientist (some say it was Bertrand Russell) once gave a public lecture on astronomy. He described how the earth orbits around the sun and how the sun, in turn, orbits around the centre of a vast collection of stars called our galaxy. At the end of the lecture, a little old lady at the back of the room got up and said: "What you have told us is rubbish. The world is really a flat plate supported on the back of a giant tortoise." The scientist gave a superior smile before replying, "What is the tortoise standing on?" "You're very clever, young man, very clever," said the old lady. "But it's turtles all the way down!"
I am not foolish enough to disagree with Stephen.
Stephen Hawking incorporates the saying into the beginning of his 1988 book A Brief History of Time:
A well-known scientist (some say it was Bertrand Russell) once gave a public lecture on astronomy. He described how the earth orbits around the sun and how the sun, in turn, orbits around the centre of a vast collection of stars called our galaxy. At the end of the lecture, a little old lady at the back of the room got up and said: "What you have told us is rubbish. The world is really a flat plate supported on the back of a giant tortoise." The scientist gave a superior smile before replying, "What is the tortoise standing on?" "You're very clever, young man, very clever," said the old lady. "But it's turtles all the way down!"
I am not foolish enough to disagree with Stephen.
Last edited:
- Joined
- Feb 23, 1999
- Messages
- 4,855
Elephants are known for their stamina, and are in fact used for arduous tasks like moving timber over distance in logging. They are also referenced as beasts of war in various accounts, marching over long distances with armor and loads, and then going into battle.
While respecting Stephen Hawking’s intellectual power, his powers of observation may not be as great as his intellect. It is possible that the elephants in the hand drawing in the Wikipedia reference I gave are a bit exaggerated in size. That could account both for Hawking’s oversight and their lack of visibility in the photos you posted.
While respecting Stephen Hawking’s intellectual power, his powers of observation may not be as great as his intellect. It is possible that the elephants in the hand drawing in the Wikipedia reference I gave are a bit exaggerated in size. That could account both for Hawking’s oversight and their lack of visibility in the photos you posted.
- Joined
- Feb 23, 1999
- Messages
- 4,855
I completely empathize with your affection for turtles, but please don’t allow that to blind you to the evidence. Your supporting documentation from one old lady almost embodies the aphorism “old wives tale.” It is quite probable the old woman is repeating hearsay, and has not even seen the first turtle layer.
Here is some time honored, documented evidence, supported by 60,000 eye witnesses, who even went so far as to get the names of the elephants on the first layer. This should put the matter to rest. The science is settled!
https://www.valmiki.iitk.ac.in/sloka?field_kanda_tid=1&language=dv&field_sarga_value=40
Suggest playing the audio as you read.
The elephants are first mentioned at verse 1.40.12.
There is considerable detail, but note there is tactile as well as visual confirmation. “Then all sixty thousand sons having touched the elephant and circumambulated it...”
- Joined
- Aug 17, 2003
- Messages
- 3,409
Right near the beginning at 1.40.2 they mention the God-Father Vasudeva .supports the earth, the elephants named must be on the upper surface where the 60K could walk around them after paying their respects, they hold the earth together when the turtles get more comfortable. Possibly they are holding up big chains that go thru to the giant washers on the under surface? The elephants are not very big anyway, only as big as a mountain. A mountain's variation in the height over the entire earth if scaled down to a Dhal shield couldn't even be felt. I suspect they only held the Indian continental mass attached to the rather erratic glue line of the Himalayas. best not to upset the old lady, for she may be Kali, the goddess of death.
..Still turtles all the way down from there.
..Still turtles all the way down from there.
- Joined
- Feb 23, 1999
- Messages
- 4,855
The vast throng of assembled forumites now have all the facts (and alternative facts) before them. Best we now let them arrive at their own conclusions.
I fear if we debate any further, the ultimate arbiters of scientific fact in this day and age may make an appearance. We really don’t want the politicians showing up. They have things they deem important to do, and should they become disgruntled at being disturbed by our speculations on the fundamental basis of the cosmos, we run the risk of being deemed non-essential.
I fear if we debate any further, the ultimate arbiters of scientific fact in this day and age may make an appearance. We really don’t want the politicians showing up. They have things they deem important to do, and should they become disgruntled at being disturbed by our speculations on the fundamental basis of the cosmos, we run the risk of being deemed non-essential.
- Joined
- Aug 17, 2003
- Messages
- 3,409
After over a year exhaustively researching into the Elephant - Turtle debate, I have come to the conclusions that elephants do not naturally auto-stack like the turtles in the earlier photos. Photos of more than one Elephant attempting to climb onto another already on top of a lower elephant are impossible to verify; tho it is easy to mistake their procreation activities for stacking, there are never more than two elephants involved. I suspect any photos of stacked elephants are photoshopped, unlike the stacked turtles who were quite happily stacked. I consider the case closed. If you wish to hold an opposing view, that is your right that I will defend to the death. Even if it is wrong. Also note Turtles look very much like the UFO discs seen flying from outer space to their positions in the stack, but no unidentified flying elephants have been noted by sober observers.
p.s. - For the purposes of this thread, Turtles and Tortoises have been considered as members of the same order. Tortoises are turtles that are not equipped for life in the water, though both adapt well to their roles in supporting planets. Turtles are more prone to serve on water worlds., and thus usually join the Marine Turtle Corps.
p.s. - For the purposes of this thread, Turtles and Tortoises have been considered as members of the same order. Tortoises are turtles that are not equipped for life in the water, though both adapt well to their roles in supporting planets. Turtles are more prone to serve on water worlds., and thus usually join the Marine Turtle Corps.
