"It was not a tang to inspire confidence."

D

Dan D'Silva

Joined
May 31, 2020
Messages
72
I just got this factory-made dirk and disassembled it for a project. Everything looks fine... except that the tang significantly narrows at the shoulders. This isn't something I've seen on any other blade from the same manufacturer. (No, I can't return it; I had to destroy the grip to get it apart.)

0323221438b.jpg


Anyways, I was wondering if there would be any way to make it stronger. Maybe the old trick of grinding the tops of the shoulders down (perhaps more than usual here) so that the corners of the junction flare and get rid of the stress risers would be enough? The only other idea I had was soldering more steel on; no idea whether that would help. I could always have a welder add more metal, probably redo the heat-treatment, but that quickly gets to be a lot of work.
 
I personally like the idea you've proposed- seems sound to me.
I'm not sure how much it's going to buy you, because frankly I don't know what the strength of the current tang is.
You might just be making the job harder than it has to be. What are you planning on using this knife for?
 
The reason a radius is designed into any part is for strength at the point. If you put the knife in a vise and bent the tang, it would break or crack right at that square corner, of course. Whether that extra strength is needed is for you to decide. Sure wouldn't hurt.
 
Done!

0327221706a.jpg


Or, at least, that's as far as I wound up going. As you can see from the Sharpie marks, I planned to lengthen the tang somewhat more, but the steel was heating up fast and stopping to ice it down every couple seconds was getting to be a drag. Anyways, from what you've said, this should be... probably sufficient. I hope.

Thanks, everyone.
 
Knives were made with 90 degree tang junctures for 400 years. There was seldom a problem.
You're going to have a much harder time fitting a guard now, and you still have to grind down the swell in the tang.
 
Bill DeShivs said:
Knives were made with 90 degree tang junctures for 400 years. There was seldom a problem.
You're going to have a much harder time fitting a guard now, and you still have to grind down the swell in the tang.
Click to expand...
Eh, I've fitted guards to highly rounded shoulders before. It's tedious but I can deal with it.

Do you mean the narrow below the swell will be a weak point if the swell isn't brought into line? I had been worried about that, but wasn't sure.
 
No, I mean the tang is larger- then tapers toward both ends. If you get a guard over the swell, it will be too big at the joint.
 
I've done this to a couple of Indian made sword blades. It does indeed take more work to fit a guard to radiused shoulders than to 90* ones, but it's not too difficult. I haven't had one where the tang widened like that one, but Bill is right on that; you want to file down both sides of the tang so it's straight, like so:

https://imgur.com/yD9oww1
 
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