Newbie Knife Handle Making - Narrow Tang

M

maffp

Joined
Aug 26, 2007
Messages
5
Hi!

I've been given a knife which you have to make your own handle for. I'm pretty skilled with timber carving and joinery but I've never done this before. The blade is just under 4 inches and the tang is 4.25 inches.

knife.jpg


The tang is about 1/8 inches at the base and about 5/16 inches at the part before it curves to the shoulder of the blade (see attached picture). For a knife with a tang as narrow as this do I carve a solid handle then drill a hole down the centre and drive the blade in? Or do I create two halves and rivet them through the tang (I'm concerned about how narrow the tang is for this). Or are there other options?

Any advice would be much appreciated. Thanks!

Maff.
 
The type of handle you will have is a stub tang,or hidden tang.
In a hidden tang, you will saw off the tang at a length that will not protrude through the handle (usually about 3-4") and you will drill a hole in the handle . You will fill the hole with epoxy and insert the tang. Once dry, the blade will stay in place . There is a lot more involved than this, but that is the gist of it.

On a through tang, the hole is drilled all the way through the handle. The tang end sticking out about 1/4", is fitted with a metal washer and the end of the tang is peened to make a riveted fitting. This locks the blade tightly into the handle. When doing a through tang, most folks still epoxy the blade in as well.If the tang isn't long enough, you can weld on a piece of threaded rod and screw a nut on the end to lock the blade on.

If you do some looking in the newbie stickies at the top of this forum you will find links to Sites where tutorials on doing handles are posted. You can find some at www.knifehow.com ,too. A book on knife making will show you also.

Unless you are going to make a very plain knife, you will need to fit some sort of guard on the blade before adding the handle.

Do some searches on "hidden Tang".

Welcome to the forums.
Stacy

Edited: I just checked KNIFEHOW, it looks like someone linked a Viagra site to it and it has been corrupted with adds. How sad !!
Stacy
 
On thin stock, I prefer to drill a hole in a block of wood. I use two methods:

1. Choose a drill bit the same size as the stock and drill a hole. Then, heat up the tang with a blowtorch, keeping the cutting edge cool (wrap the blade in a wet towel, you might also want to tape up the cutting edge), and push it into the hole. Don't get too overzealous or the tang may get stuck. Do a little at a time, and make sure the blade doesn't get hot. You don't have to heat the tang very long. This method uses the least amount of epoxy next to mortising the handle (using a milling machine to cut the slot) and is very strong.

2. Use a drill bit one size larger than the stock size (from a standard set of drills), eg. if your stock is 1/8", use a 5/32" bit, drill a hole and then use a rotozip to widen the hole to fit the tang. You gotta have steady hands for this.

On 3/16" and thicker stock, mortising (2 halves) the handle is fine. You can use this method on thinner stock too, but having a milling machine to cut the slot is recommended.

IMHO, the solid block of wood approach is stronger ... and you don't risk the chance of getting a joint line or mismatching the grain. I recently used method 1 and didn't even secure the blade with a pin and in destructive testing, I couldn't even get the two to separate. Any of these methods will work well. Hope this helps.
 
Wow! Cheers for the quick help guys. I now know what direction I'm heading in and will post you a pic of the finished article when I'm done (though don't come back too soon!)
 
I am also not a knifemaker but I enjoy modding knives and kits. At present O am doing one using stag handles that I had cut in the middle into slabs and using the hidden tang method.I am almost done and it looks perfect.I have two pins thru it.The handle looks like a solid one piece stag handle and seams don't show.
 
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