Skeletonized Tangs

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Grant D

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Apr 10, 2015
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Hey guys! I recently started working on a prototype for a lightweight knife design and have utilized a skeletonized tang to reduce the weight. With the tang being skeletonized I was able to reduce by over 2oz. The steel is 3/16” thick 52100. I’m going to be fully hardening the entire knife, then draw tempering the tang to purple color (~540°) to help circumvent the risk of breakage at the front of the tang. Realistically a knife shouldn’t be used as a pry bar, however I want to make sure it can withstand such abuse if it encounters it. I plan on abuse testing the prototype to see how it fares, however I want to get your opinions, criticisms, or suggestions to how I could potentially do this better. Thank you much guys.
 
Not related to heat treat but the corners on the butt look pretty pointy, maybe round them a bit?
 
In my opinion 3/16” is too thick. You could lose more weight by using 3/32” stock, tapering the tang will also help reduce weight. You can also mill pockets in the handle material to reduce weight and provide more space for epoxy to get a good bond. You could also Clay the spine and tang to help prevent those areas from hardening as much as the edge.
 
These are going to be steel only utility knives? No handle scales? If so, then I understand starting with 3/16" or even wider so the handle feels a bit nicer in hand. But agree the blade itself needs to have a spine much less thick especially with how little height there is from cutting edge to spine.

I think you can draw the "neck" from the blade to handle transition, but I would also taper it from the thinner spine width to the thicker handle width which will give it more strength at that higher stress area.
 
fishface5 said:
Not related to heat treat but the corners on the butt look pretty pointy, maybe round them a bit?
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Lol They are pretty pointy! I plan on cleaning those up along with the the radius towards the front of the handle once I get the scales glued up.
 
HSC /// said:
I don’t have to look at it .... I can just tell you it’s too thick

my opinion , that for a full tang construction knife, anything thicker than .08 should have a tapered tang

Otherwise it just looks like a slab of production Knife pry bar
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I agree with you on the thickness. I usually don’t go thicker than 1/8” on most of my knives. This was some forging stock I had on hand that I wasn’t going to get to until things cooled down (Vegas summers are brutal), so I figured I’d use it for stock removal. You’ve got a good point with the tapered tang, not only do they work well for lightening things up, they also look amazing. I’ve only done a couple, so I’ll taper the tangs in the remainder of the blanks I made. It’ll be good practice too. It sounds like you prefer tapered tangs, but what are your thoughts on skeletonized tangs?
 
Joshua Fisher said:
In my opinion 3/16” is too thick. You could lose more weight by using 3/32” stock, tapering the tang will also help reduce weight. You can also mill pockets in the handle material to reduce weight and provide more space for epoxy to get a good bond. You could also Clay the spine and tang to help prevent those areas from hardening as much as the edge.
Click to expand...
milkbaby said:
These are going to be steel only utility knives? No handle scales? If so, then I understand starting with 3/16" or even wider so the handle feels a bit nicer in hand. But agree the blade itself needs to have a spine much less thick especially with how little height there is from cutting edge to spine.

I think you can draw the "neck" from the blade to handle transition, but I would also taper it from the thinner spine width to the thicker handle width which will give it more strength at that higher stress area.
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It seems the consensus is 3/16”, is just way too thick. I’m going use scales for the handle, I was just trying to make the knife as light as possible. I’ll keep your tips in mind. Thank you!
 
954Ink said:
How did you cut out the skeletonized portions? The work is very clean.
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I chain drilled along the outline I marked with calipers, then cleaned everything up by hand with a small double cut file and a 1/4” chainsaw file. I really love the chainsaw files, they cut far cleaner and easier than the standard mill cut round files.
 
Grant D said:
I agree with you on the thickness. I usually don’t go thicker than 1/8” on most of my knives. This was some forging stock I had on hand that I wasn’t going to get to until things cooled down (Vegas summers are brutal), so I figured I’d use it for stock removal. You’ve got a good point with the tapered tang, not only do they work well for lightening things up, they also look amazing. I’ve only done a couple, so I’ll taper the tangs in the remainder of the blanks I made. It’ll be good practice too. It sounds like you prefer tapered tangs, but what are your thoughts on skeletonized tangs?
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I am a full-time maker who has to make my time count so while I think you did a wonderful job it’s not something I would get into.

I would look for something that is efficient and effective and what you did would simply take too much time

But I think you did a pretty nice job
 
I agree with a lot of the above. Nice clean work, good job with the files. I like chainsaw files too.

One thing to think about regarding weight, though. If you plan on using epoxy, that'll fill up the spaces, adding some of the weight back.
Joshua Fisher said:
provide more space for epoxy to get a good bond
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Hi Joshua, not sure if you saw this, but there are a number of folks who say the science says otherwise, however:https://www.bladeforums.com/threads...y-stuck-on-blade-tangs.1672342/#post-19129994
 
HSC /// said:
I am a full-time maker who has to make my time count so while I think you did a wonderful job it’s not something I would get into.

I would look for something that is efficient and effective and what you did would simply take too much time

But I think you did a pretty nice job
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I can see that, it took me a few hours just to drill and file that tang out alone. I don’t see this as being an effective use of my time even as a hobby. As such, this will probably just be a one off and going forward I’ll just start tapering my tangs instead. Thank you btw. Also I appreciate your time and advice! :)
 
weo said:
I agree with a lot of the above. Nice clean work, good job with the files. I like chainsaw files too.

One thing to think about regarding weight, though. If you plan on using epoxy, that'll fill up the spaces, adding some of the weight back.

Hi Joshua, not sure if you saw this, but there are a number of folks who say the science says otherwise, however:https://www.bladeforums.com/threads...y-stuck-on-blade-tangs.1672342/#post-19129994
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Thank you! Also good point with the epoxy adding weight back. After reading that thread you linked (thanks for the info & good read btw), I’ll probably opt for threaded fasteners and just enough epoxy to lightly coat the handle material.
 
I don't think 3/16th material is too thick at all. A good custom made knife should have some heft to it, so the user feels like he has a hold on something substantial. If you use the skeletonized tang I would consider moving the front edge of the handle cut out nearest the choil about another 3/16ths toward the butt end of the knife. Tapering the tang is also a good idea to reduce a little bit of weight and uniqueness.
 
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