Question about hidden tangs

S

Sprayman

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Nov 15, 2014
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Hello, knifemakers;

Once on an episode of Forged in Fire, I saw a bladesmith make a hidden tang knife without drilling into blocks of wood. Instead, she cut the shape of the tang out of a piece of wood that was the same width as the tang, and then epoxied the tang into it. Next, she sandwiched the tang in between two scales, then pinned and epoxied it all together. Does this make sense? IF so, have you used this method? Do you know of any instructions or videos about it?

I've made my first hidden tang blade, and am looking around at different ways to put it in a handle.

Thanks
 
It is called a frame handle, AKA three-piece handle. The center piece is the frame and the scales are placed on it. The frame can be a contrasting wood, the same wood, or metal.
It is a good way to get the advantage of a hidden tang with a better fit to the tang. It is also much faster than trying to get a good fit when drilling a hidden tang ... which is probably the main reason why it was done on FIF.
On curved tang handles it is often the only way to get a good fit.
The same technique is used to place a guard on a blade that will appear to be full tang, but is actually a hidden or through tang. This assembly method is very common on bowie and fighter knives.

The alternative system is a mortised handle, where one or both scales are mortised to fit the tang, then glued and pinned/bolted onto the tang. This is a bit more time consuming that the three-piece method, but looks better. Done right, a mortised handle can look like a single piece of wood.

The three-piece and mortised methods are used to make tsuka and saya ( handles and sheaths) for Japanese and other knives. It allows a perfect fit along a curved blade.

Doing a search on frame handle, and three piece handle should get plenty of tutorials.
 
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i have done it that way, i call it a sandwich frame. not much to it, cut out the center (meat) to match the tang, then attach the two other pieces of handle (bread) to the outside and pin.
 
That's called a "frame" handle construction. The frame is the piece cut to fit around the tang. Ideally the frame is mechanically joined to the scales and the scales are mechanically joined to the tang. Depending on the size of the knife and handle, this could be as few as 4 pins through the scales and frame and 1 though the scales and tang.

It's a common method of construction. I'm sure there are many ways to do it, but I do it like this:

1. Trace the tang on the frame material, and cut out the tang relief.
2. Mate the frame and scale materials with a drip of super glue, drill the scale/frame pin holes.
3. While it's still glued, finish the front of the frame whether that means squaring up to meet a guard or terminating for a guardless knife.
4. Trace the handle profile, then drill the hole for the tang pin - but not through the tang, only the scales.
5. Separate everything, glue up permanently and assemble with the frame pins.
6. Saw/grind handle to finished shape and sand to near finish.
7. Clamp handle to blade and transfer tang hole location. Drill tang hole with the blade separated.
8. Assemble complete.
 
the top pic is the beginning of a 3 pc handle for a kitchen knife, I have done this several times for kitchen knives.

the 2nd pics is the Frame construction that kuraki kuraki outlined above.
this method IMO takes some skill and learning to do well

Kz6uhLV.jpg


CAqFkTh.jpg
 
I know a knife maker here in Bakersfield who will trace his hidden tang on a piece of wood that he has sawn down the middle to make two scales and after sanding the inside of the scales to a fine finish will route the tang outline into both pieces leaving just a little space. He cuts some diagonal slots in the top and bottom of the tang and clamps it together long enough to drill for a pin. After they are glued up and finished it looks like a solid block of wood with a hidden tang. You have to look through a magnifier to see the hairline down the middle. I have never done this myself but his knives look great. Larry
 
That is called a mortised tang by some. Jerry Fisk does that with stag. Claude Bouchonville mortises his handle with a little Dremel router setup.
LARRYZ10 said:
I know a knife maker here in Bakersfield who will trace his hidden tang on a piece of wood that he has sawn down the middle to make two scales and after sanding the inside of the scales to a fine finish will route the tang outline into both pieces leaving just a little space. He cuts some diagonal slots in the top and bottom of the tang and clamps it together long enough to drill for a pin. After they are glued up and finished it looks like a solid block of wood with a hidden tang. You have to look through a magnifier to see the hairline down the middle. I have never done this myself but his knives look great. Larry
Click to expand...
 
Speaking of mortising, how sweet life would be if they made a .188 mortise bit.
 
There are a number of items in the Stew Mac catalog that would be useful to the knifemaker
Stacy E. Apelt - said:
There is a great little tool for mortising that is used by guitar makers for cutting the edge trim lines and other inlay recesses. It uses small router bits and can clean out a mortise really simply. It fits a Foredom handpiece or a powered handtool.
It comes as a base only or as a full set:
http://www.stewmac.com/Luthier_Tool...s_and_Bits/Routers/Precision_Router_Base.html
http://www.stewmac.com/Luthier_Tool..._Base/Precision_Router_Base_Complete_Set.html
Click to expand...
 
I am not sure what its called on kitchen knives...I usually say a frame handle. It is always hard to explain to a customer so I made this up
1tD2bNQ.png
 
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