Mortised Tang Strength?

J

jimbowie7

Joined
Mar 13, 2005
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How strong is a mortised tang? Is it good enough for a hardworking Skinner? Or is it better suited to an "art" knife?

Can you use a mortised tang on a camp knife? ie. Can you chop a 2 x 4 in half with a knife using a mortised tang without fear of the handles splitting apart?

Thanks!
 
Mortised tangs are plenty strong.And would make a great camp knife, I have a nice mt curly maple handled camp knife,it has chopped 2x4s and butchered white-tailed. I dig mortised tangs! :thumbup:
 
jimbowie7 said:
How strong is a mortised tang? Is it good enough for a hardworking Skinner? Or is it better suited to an "art" knife?

Can you use a mortised tang on a camp knife? ie. Can you chop a 2 x 4 in half with a knife using a mortised tang without fear of the handles splitting apart?

Thanks!
Click to expand...


Onw of my early knives was a hidden full tang. I took a full tang and morticed into two slabs. There was 1/8" clearance around the edges. IMO, it had the strength advantages of a full tang, and the corrosion resistance of a morticed tang, because I used a dense oily wood (snakewood).

hft03x4c54.jpg


(link to discussion thread)
 
Mortised tangs are cool. I prefer drilling the handle; no seams (no reflection on the beautiful piece displayed just above this post). It is good to round sharp angles to better distribute stresses.

RL
 
A properly fitted mortised tang would be plenty strong for any work the knife is up for. That's how they've been doing Japanese swords for hundreds of years, which I think is a pretty good recommendation. ;) One thing about it, to do it well is not easy - in fact I think it's about the most difficult way to handle a knife there is... Because of that I'd only do it when the application leaves no other choice.
 
Dave, Just curious. What part of it do you find most difficult. I do mostly mortised tangs, primarily cause they seemed easiest......I was having trouble keeping the hole straight down the middle on hidden tangs. With mortised everything is automaticly centered. I use a dremel with a "drill press" fixture to do the mortising and it takes about 5 minutes.

Jim, check out Terry Primos's website He has an excellent tutorial on how to do them.
Good luck,
Ed
 
Properly done, it's a really strong handle. I had to replace one the other day because I ground through to the tang while shaping the handle. It took a good number of hits with a 4# sledge to break it apart, and it wasn't along the seam that it broke.

On darker woods, it's really easy to hide the seam. Lighter woods are a little more difficult. I have done quite a few that I couldn't find the seam afterwards.

For me, in my shop, it's the quickest and easiest way to handle a knife. It rarely takes me more than 10 minutes to start with slabs of wood and end up with the mortise cut and the two pieces glued.

ZDP, how do you manage a hidden full tang? A hidden tang is not the full width of the handle, and a full tang is? :confused:

Jamie
 
jimbowie7 said:
How strong is a mortised tang? Is it good enough for a hardworking Skinner? Or is it better suited to an "art" knife?

Can you use a mortised tang on a camp knife? ie. Can you chop a 2 x 4 in half with a knife using a mortised tang without fear of the handles splitting apart?

Thanks!
Click to expand...

I use canvas or linen micarta, I never worry about breaking handle material! I use handle bolts or pins too. Not just epoxy. (my tangs are wide)
 
happycat said:
Dave, Just curious. What part of it do you find most difficult. I do mostly mortised tangs, primarily cause they seemed easiest......I was having trouble keeping the hole straight down the middle on hidden tangs. With mortised everything is automaticly centered. I use a dremel with a "drill press" fixture to do the mortising and it takes about 5 minutes.

Jim, check out Terry Primos's website He has an excellent tutorial on how to do them.
Good luck,
Ed
Click to expand...
Well Ed you do have a point; I'm just working with my Dremel hand held and I know that makes a difference. What's hard for me is keeping each side the same depth and not making the cutout any larger than the tang.
 
Dave, that "drill press" thing makes all the difference. You can adjust the depth and lock it in. then you just push the slab into the cutting head and stay within the lines. If you don't try to take off too much at once , its really easy. If you clamp a shop vac hose next to it to keep the dust off your bench it saves clean up time. I can't recommend this gadget enough. I think they're about 35.00 or so. Well worth the money.
Ed
 
Thanks Ed, I'm going to consider doing that. My regular Dremel is hanging with a flex shaft on it but I have an old one that I think just needs brushes - I could set that up* with the drill press or router base and use it for just that. Good idea, thanks.

*Hmmm... Or better yet, buy a neat new Foredom machine and use my working Dremel for the router. ;)
 
ddavelarsen said:
*Hmmm... Or better yet, buy a neat new Foredom machine and use my working Dremel for the router. ;)
Click to expand...

Good'un, Dave. Foredoms, dremels, routers, and a bzillion shapes of files are my mainstay.
 
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