Question on Epoxy Hidden Tang

[lamontjb]

Well I've been working on my Dad's Xmas gift and was putting the handle together sometime around 4am. Everything seemed to have fit tight, and then I drilled a 1/8" hole in the handle and tang for the pin.

Well, when I fitted everything later on (an hour ago) I found that there was a slight gap... enough to make the pieces wiggle alittle and light to pass through. I thought that the epoxy would close that up... but now I am wondering if that was a mistake.

Do you think a slight gap will be ok? If I had to estimate, I would say it was 1/4 the thickness of the cardboard spacers.

I just epoxied it so I hope its not an issue...

 

[Patrickknives]

If it was me I would take it apart, in an hour you may be able to heat and pull the tang out. That gap may allow the blade to pivot in the handle which may destroy the knife later. Tough call now but give it a tug and see if the glue is really set.

You can get creative with some spacers to fill the gap now that you have the pin hole, maybe a brass or ss spacer and another colored spacer. It could be that some metal fell into the bottom of the hole preventing the tang from fitting.

 

[Fred.Rowe]

Heat it in the oven at 250, remove the pin, file the hole in the tang forward a little and put it back together.
It will take you an hour and a half and your gift will be the better for it.:thumbup:

Fred

 

[richard j]

you can also cut some notches in the tang to help keep things tight. i use a 5 minute epoxy and the whole time i press the blade down into the antler. i had a friends son leave a knife i made him out in the rain. i took it apart which wasnt easy. i heated the spine close to the guard and finally had the tang hot enough to pull free from the epoxy. it doesnt have any pins and is still together 10 years later.