Charles, I haven't been making knives that long, but I have been destroying knives for years, so here are my $.02 cents worth. I have taken 3 pound hammers to the but of knives before, and have never had a well constructed hidden tange break. I have had porly constructed handles fail however.
In my experiance, a well made hidden tang is stronger than most full tange knives.
On a well made hidden tang, the tange is the thickest part of the knife and is not much narrower than a full tang.
On a well made hidden tang, the handle material itself strengthens the tange against bending, on a full tang, the handle material provides little to no stability. The durability of a hidden tang depends on no stress rissers, the tang being as wide as posible, a solid handle material and everything sucked up tight with no air space for the handle to shift.
Also, the open sides of a full tang are an open invitation to moister and comming alouse.
The vast majority of knives thourgout history have been hidden tang, such as most swords, the kurka's(spelling?) which have some heavy chopers in there family.
Also you can make a frame handle, looks like a full tange, but is a hidden tange, like the coke bottle style bowies.
Hope this gives you some ideas,
William
