How do I end a stick tang

R

rkwalker

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Oct 20, 2002
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I am working on my 1st stick tang - This is going to be one of those leather wafer handles, O1 5/32" blade is finished and not heat treated yet. The end of the knife is currently retangle shape Do I round off the end and tread it for the pommel (1/4" thick) and tap the pommel or can I solder (with a propane torch)a brass rod to the end and drill all the way through the pommel. Have tried searching for ways to do the end of tang but ended up with about a thousand threads to look through. Don't have but three knifes under my belt and using simple equipment so please keep responses at a newbie level. thanks
 
I think the simplest way is to solder a brass rod on the tang and drill the same size hole in the pommel and counter sink the pommel and peen the brass rod to fill it. Its simple and many knives were done this way from the factory. A steel rod would be a stronger joint. Practice on a couple first to see how deep to countersink the hole. The peened dome can be sanded and polished or ground off flush with the pommel.
 
I'm currently working on a couple that I rounded and threaded the end of the tang to screw a pommel to. Another method to do this is to cut the tang off a little short, notch it, and weld/braze a piece of allthread to it to screw a pommel onto. If you have access to a lathe, you could do something like Karl Anderson (kbaknife) does and make a small internally threaded "nut" that would pass through a butt cap to hold the butt cap on. Or the braze/peen method described by Bruce above.

Just some more options for you!

-d
 
Don't have the ability to braze/weld. I just had no clue how to end this so it looked good. Will attempt to solder a brass rod on as Bruce suggested- didn't know if I could solder brass to steel. While brass is part of the topic and may come into play if I drill through pommel as Bruce is suggesting- can brass be melted? I have a bad fit on one of my bolster pins. If I ground down a little piece of brass can I use the powder to melt into the crack around pin or should I drive it out and put in a new pin??.
 
I posted this a while back regarding hidden stick tang knives.

You can slot or drill the butt cap and peen the tang. I recently finished the handle class put on by MS Rob Hudson. He basically finishes all his hidden tang knives that way. Leave about 1/16" of the tang, give or take, protruding from the cap, and countersink the outside hole in the butt cap slightly. Fill the handle with epoxy, assemble, and when you peen the tang it will mush out into the countersink hole. You can feel the guard/handle/buttcap "assembly" tighten up as you peen it, to where it gets rock solid.

Rob also files some small, shallow slots (grooves) in the edge of the hole through the butt cap, to give the cap some more resistance to turning. The slots do not go all the way through the hole - you can not see them when the knife is finished. When peening, presumably some of the displaced tang material anchors in those slots.

Let the epoxy set, and after you grind down and finish the outside of the butt cap it will look nice, you can polish as much as you want for the desired effect.

I've now done two hidden tang knives this way myself, and they turned out very nicely for a beginning hack like me.

Allgonquin
 
I know this doesn't answer your question about finishing the tang but others have given really good ideas how you can do that. My question is how are you treating the leather spacers prior to finishing the handle?

I read a good idea in another thread a while back where the leather spacers were glued and clamped/compressed in small sections prior to handle assembly. This sounded like a good idea to me and may be something you can try as well. This would help you get maximum compression and bonding of the leather which would keep the handle nice and tight for years to come.

Just a thought
 
Someone once showed me a slick design where they had drilled a hole in the end of their tang, then attached a small pivot with a pin that they got froma hardware store. A pin went through the tang and the pivot held a threaded nut so that the buttcap would basically self-center. I wish i knew what hardware part that was that they used....
 
Allgonquin not sure I understand completely what you are explaining. So the steel tang would extend beyound pommel and peened, ground smooth?? do you have any pics or links to pics.

Kerry I was going to cut 1" squares of leather and spacer material glue them together and compress them while they dried and after attach pommel before shaping handle. Making a knife like western brand settler or camillus buckmaster except I want a round tappering brass pommel
 
rkwalker said:
Allgonquin not sure I understand completely what you are explaining. So the steel tang would extend beyound pommel and peened, ground smooth?? do you have any pics or links to pics.

Kerry I was going to cut 1" squares of leather and spacer material glue them together and compress them while they dried and after attach pommel before shaping handle. Making a knife like western brand settler or camillus buckmaster except I want a round tappering brass pommel
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Depends on how thick your pommel. If it is round then you don't have to worry about lining it up or using pins. just round off the tang to slightly larger than the hole and thread it using a tap and die set you can get at any Home Depot. But you have to crank it down pretty good to compress the leather washers.
 
that link has some stuff that I would be dubious about, like scorching the handle to make it harder, if you scorch the handle after you've epoxy'd it I think you're just looking for trouble
 
RK,
I don't have any photos handy here at my office. When you look at the finished butt cap, all you see is the circle of tang material embedded in the metal of the butt cap material. So if you have a brass butt cap, you see a circle of lighter colored steel tang material, assuming you ground the end of your tang round, drilled a round hole in the butt cap, and then countersunk the hole some to make it mushroom. I'll try to take a pic after I get home.

If you do a good job finishing the butt cap, it all seems like a single piece. A pic is worth a thousand words or so. I'll get one.

Rgds,
Allgonquin
 
Attempted to solder a brass rod to the end of my stick tang and it didn't even attempt to stay attached. Was using 40/60 solder pre heated both brass and tang solder just puddled but brass wouldn't stick.

Allgonquin I think I understand what you are saying now. So will the steel peen like when putting a pin in boslter (assuming that it will be a little harder)
 
I reduce (before I HT) the tang end (1 1/2 ") down small enough to run a 10/32 thread chaser over the end until it has around 1 " of thread. The tang can be flat on two sides and will be threaded on the two flat sides only.I then weld or braze a 10/32 nut on the bottom of the pommel. Get your fit correct, fill handle with epoxy, slide on, screw pommel on the end of threaded tang and finish.
Also,I recess a hole into the pommel so the tang will screw past the 10/32 nut (over the hole) welded to the bottom of the pommel.
 
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