I was just told a skeletonized tang has more strength. Is that true?

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letsurf

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Mar 11, 2013
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I talked to a reputable knife dealer today and they said that skeletonizing a tang actually increases the strength. Is that true? It sounds illogical to me but I'm certainly not an engineer.
 
letsurf said:
I talked to a reputable knife dealer today and they said that skeletonizing a tang actually increases the strength. Is that true? It sounds illogical to me but I'm certainly not an engineer.
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What he’s saying is simmilar to the I-beam thing. If I had ten pounds of steel and want to forge it into a beam that is 5 feet long, if I forge it into an I-beam it would be stronger than if I forged that same weight of steel into a straight square beam.

However if I have a square beam of a certain weight and cut two lengthwise channels into opposite sides of it and turn it into an I beam that way, it will not be stronger than the original square beam.
 
Ah I see. He didn't word it like that. I was inquiring about the Bravo 1 because it has a very skeletonized tang. Do you think the handle adds a lot of strength? It baffles me that two small pieces of thin metal like on the Bravo tang could have any strength at all. But.. if the handle has a lot of strength and it extends up past the thinnest part a significant amount then maybe it adds a lot of strength?
 
letsurf said:
I was inquiring about the Bravo 1 because it has a very skeletonized tang.
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Adding holes to the tang of the Bravo 1 does not make it stronger. At best it might not make it weaker, or might not make it much weaker, but will not make it stronger. I'm not a knife dealer so I don't know how that business works, but I am a structural engineer so I know a lot about strength of materials.

It used to be standard for a fine custom knife to have a tapered tang which was their way of keeping full strength but reducing weight and improving balance. This would probably be expensive for a production knife company to do so they just order the blanks with holes cut in the tang.
 
letsurf said:
I talked to a reputable knife dealer today and they said that skeletonizing a tang actually increases the strength. Is that true?
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Hmm, dunno exactly. But could the dealer be mistaking the strength of a lengthwise hollow as being applicable to a skeltonized handle?
 
letsurf said:
...Surviving ;)
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Thanks for the chuckle. I survive every day and I mostly use a Vic SAK. ;) I do have a lot of choices when it comes to knives that I own.

By the way, if you choose to baton a blade, you don't strike it where the handle meets the blade with a baton. That said, you can break ANY knife if you beat on them enough. I once in fact used a sledge hammer to baton a SOG fixed blade and had no problems what's so ever with the knife. I don't recommend that practice and have not done it since. I was playing around with a knife I really didn't care if I broke or not.
 
We all like knives and larger knives certainly have their purposes. But you could do a lot worse "surviving" with the little White River Backpacker Pro which has a 3" blade and a SAK. I really like this knife and it runs about $115. That said, if I go into the woods for any distance, I will probably have my Wilderness Explorer with me now and it likely will never get used. My SAK does the lion share of all the cutting I need done and I often take a small folding saw (or take a SAK with a saw blade such as the One Handed Trekker) with me for cutting smallish wood to size/length for a fire if I feel like making the effort. Previously I generally carried my Kabar Becker BK-15 and it did everything I needed to do with a knife. I just wanted something "prettier". I could easily see myself field dressing a deer with the Wilderness Explorer model even though it is a bit long bladed for such tasks.

Tell you a little story about choices..... I was looking to buy a new utility trailer. I was thinking tandam axles to carry more weight (not cars or heavy equipment) and about 14 feet long. An associate asked me why I wanted it and I told him. He said... just how frequently do you haul a ton or more on a trailer? The answer was seldom and is kind of like a survival knife that you really don't need. I ended up buying a new (but very good) 12 foot utility single axle trailer and saved myself about $1000 in the process.
 
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GIRLYmann said:
Hmm, dunno exactly. But could the dealer be mistaking the strength of a lengthwise hollow as being applicable to a skeltonized handle?
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Love the old video reminds me of childhood! Does that mean I need to put sponge in my skeletoned tang?

22-rimfire said:
Thanks for the chuckle. I survive every day and I mostly use a Vic SAK. ;) I do have a lot of choices when it comes to knives that I own.

By the way, if you choose to baton a blade, you don't strike it where the handle meets the blade with a baton. That said, you can break ANY knife if you beat on them enough. I once in fact used a sledge hammer to baton a SOG fixed blade and had no problems what's so ever with the knife. I don't recommend that practice and have not done it since. I was playing around with a knife I really didn't care if I broke or not.
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haha I have a SAK Atlas and love it. I'm sure the Bravo is durable enough for anything you'd want to throw at it but seeing that tang just gave me an uneasy feeling.
 
That's not right, but it also doesn't really matter. That knife is going to be durable enough for anything you want to do with it. The rep should have told you that it lightens the handle a little to balance it out better.
 
GIRLYmann said:
Sponge would be great for the optional jigged bone handle ;-)
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121b%20-%20Shell%20Shocked%20(007).jpg
 
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