- Joined
- Sep 3, 2004
- Messages
- 450
For some time Ive had these drawings of a new series of user knives. With these knives I wanted to combine the properties of a slabtang and a sticktang knife. I finally was able to make a prototype which I will take to Schotland this week for testing.
My ideas:
The advantage of a slabtang knife is in my opinion that there is a lot of steel in the place where forces are generated when prying for example (near the indexfinger). A downside are the slabs, which in my opinion are never a real integral part of the knife.
The advantage of a sticktang (again in my opinion) is that the grip is completely locked by peening the end of the tang over the buttcap. Downside is that you have less steel at the ricasso/tang area (not a problem at all when properly executed, but Im thinking pure theoretical).
My prototype combines all good properties from both types of knives. What I did is create a construction like youve probably seen in extrema ratio for example and combined it with the sticktang principle. So you still have the peened tang, enclosed grip and hardened pommel for hammering but also a lot of steel in the mid-section.
For the grip I used rubber (thanks Ed) since it is hard to beat when considering grip, warmth and shock absorption. Downside is that it can be compressed. If I would start hammering, the buttcap would start moving on the rubber, maybe even coming loose from the rubber despite the epoxy. To solve this I made a shoulder in the tang and placed a piece of micarta between the rubber and hardened buttcap. In the real version there will also be an extra pin in the buttcap.
I made this one stockremovel out of O1 and gave it a foliage green gunkote finish. The real ones will be forged out of O1. In the pictures the knife is just fitted but not yet assembled. Im going to glue everyting together tonight, so cracks will disapear.
This is the smallest version, there are also three bigger ones.
ok here are the pics, Im curious what you guys think:
My ideas:
The advantage of a slabtang knife is in my opinion that there is a lot of steel in the place where forces are generated when prying for example (near the indexfinger). A downside are the slabs, which in my opinion are never a real integral part of the knife.
The advantage of a sticktang (again in my opinion) is that the grip is completely locked by peening the end of the tang over the buttcap. Downside is that you have less steel at the ricasso/tang area (not a problem at all when properly executed, but Im thinking pure theoretical).
My prototype combines all good properties from both types of knives. What I did is create a construction like youve probably seen in extrema ratio for example and combined it with the sticktang principle. So you still have the peened tang, enclosed grip and hardened pommel for hammering but also a lot of steel in the mid-section.
For the grip I used rubber (thanks Ed) since it is hard to beat when considering grip, warmth and shock absorption. Downside is that it can be compressed. If I would start hammering, the buttcap would start moving on the rubber, maybe even coming loose from the rubber despite the epoxy. To solve this I made a shoulder in the tang and placed a piece of micarta between the rubber and hardened buttcap. In the real version there will also be an extra pin in the buttcap.
I made this one stockremovel out of O1 and gave it a foliage green gunkote finish. The real ones will be forged out of O1. In the pictures the knife is just fitted but not yet assembled. Im going to glue everyting together tonight, so cracks will disapear.
This is the smallest version, there are also three bigger ones.
ok here are the pics, Im curious what you guys think:
