Stabilizing wood with drilled/burned holes

DeadFall27

DeadFall27

Joined
May 18, 2011
Messages
1,476
Hey all!

I was wondering if I can stabilize my wood block after burning the Tang into it for a tight fit. I have done this a couple times now with stable wood and unstable wood without stabilizing it.

After some research, I found that burning tangs into stabilized woodland hardwoods is difficult and can cause cracking (it's unfortunate). To prevent this, I wanted to know if I can burn the Tang in unstable woodland then stabilize it without fearing the resin filling in the hole. Will the resin fill in the hole? Or am I worrying too much?

Cheers!
 
Yes, you could burn the tang hole and then stabilize. There will be some slight re-fitting needed after stabilizing.

The real answer is to just drill the tang hole. Burning in isn't really of any advantage in the day of modern epoxies. With epoxy resins, every tang hole is an exact fit.
 
I'd be curious as to how much of the tang hole would get filled.
 
I think i would worry more about distortion ofthe wood (both outer dimensions and the linearity of the tang hole) from the stabilization process....
 
I really dont advise people to stabilize after doing any work to the wood. Every month or so I get an email from someone who has the genius idea of shaping a handle and then stabilizing it to save on cost.

Thats not how it works. The smaller the piece, the greater the warpage, risk of cracking and twisting gets.
 
The tang hole should be filled with resin and then the tang inserted. The excess is squeezed out. The holle will end up 100% filled and the bond to the tang will be rock solid.

There are several methods of assuring that the resin fills the tang hole.
1) Use slow cure resin.
2) Use a thin resin, like top-coat/clear-coat/bar-top/etc. I like System Three Clear Coat. It is almost water thing when mixed.
3) Make sure all the sawdust is out of the tang hole.
4) (I used to use this trick before switching to thin resin ) - Slide a thin coffee stir in the tang hole. pour the resin in. The trapped air will escape up the straw and the resin will go all the way to the bottom. Remove straw slowly and then insert tang.
5) Use a tiny funnel to let the resin go in slowly. The ones for filling perfume sprayers are perfect. They sell for something like 10 for $1. Just toss the funnel when done.

I use #2, and #5 most of the time.
 
I had always thought that what we see people call a ”burn in” is done wrong from how it was originally done. I thought I read somewhere that a traditional burn in was that the handle was a soft wood or a hard wood that had an insert of soft wood. 99% of the material was removed and the burn in was just for a sec to finish seating everything perfectly. This would also harden the inside just a little like when you fire harden the tip of a speed. Also the blade would be held in place with a pin. still impressed that the Japanese blades are held in place with a single bamboo pin :eek:.

it seams now people just grab a block and heat the tang red and try and jamb the block onto the red tang. I would say that’s not a burn in, thats a burn up.
 
I agree, the old books I have and what I was taught was to drill out the handle as much as you can and then burn the tang through the hole to get a perfect fit. Most of these were through tangs with the end peened down on a washer. These guys on FIF trying to burn a hole through an undrilled block of wood are asking for problems... if the hole ever gets through.
 
Stacy - i seem to remember reading elsewhere that many of the japanese users consider the Wa handle to be removable (for cleaning i think). Could that be part of the confusion here? That there is confusion between a process intended to create a “good fit” versus a “permanent bond”?
 
Traditional wa handles were removable and replicable. Since the handle was made without any idea what knife it would be put on, there was a lot of extra space in the hole. They are not burned in or all that tight to the tang. Wedges are driven into hold them snug. I still buy commercial wa handles from Japanese kitchen suppliers for general use blades like usuba.

Modern wa handles on many custom knives are often permanently installed and sealed with epoxy to prevent food and bacteria from getting in the handle. If removal is needed in the future, you merely handle or heat it up with a torch and smash it with a hammer to destroy it.

The technique of burning in a handle goes back to more primitive/pioneering knifemaking where no drilling equipment was available. It was common on big fighting blades and swords. The tang could be heated and repeatedly burned down the wood to make a hole. This was done before the wood was shaped and with a block large/strong enough to take the stress. The silly burning attempts on FIF with a small block of wood or one they have pre-shaped is doomed to split.
Once drilling was an available option to most people, a hole ( usually 1/4") was drilled through the block and the tang burned tight to the wood so it would not move in use. As I mentioned earlier, the tang was almost always peened down on a metal washer to lock the handle and blade solidly together.
 
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