Take Downs: Threaded rod, how long?

Patrice Lemée

Patrice Lemée

Joined
Aug 13, 2002
Messages
5,703
I know some of you guys just take the tang all the way through and thread the end. But for the ones that attach a treaded rod (welded, pinned, etc...), how much tang do you like and how much rod?

Thanks

PS: By the way, just to add a little relevant information to the thread, this is what seemed like the preferred thread sizes: 10-32, 12-24 and 1/4-28
 
Hi Pat .
Have you been to any knife shows that have a lot of makers attending? I have never seen many if any take downs except for swords. Of course the narrow through tangs are always very popular. They work for so many materials. Frank
 
I can't answer your question, but i am curious about this as well..

1/4 x 28 fasteners can be a pain to find, thats the same as the stock and grip screw on a m16 / ar15. I had to order them, no local hardware store had them.
 
No Frank, never been to a knife show. Hopefully someday, although I am not sure that when I do, they are going to let me take apart all their knives. ;)
 
Have at least 1.5" of tang sticking out past the guard. Here is the text from a recent post I made on this subject:

.......... Before doing any cutting on the billet, draw the basic profile.
Make the tang at least 1.5".
Cut a slot 1/4" wide and 3/4" deep in the end area where the tang center will be.
Take a 6-8" piece of 1/4" thread-all and set it in the slot.
Hammer the rod into the slot to make it stay in place. Make sure it is straight.
Wrap the blade portion in aluminum foil to keep the spatter off the blade area.
Weld the "U" around the sides of the rod, flip over and do the other side.
Grind off all the ugly stuff and then temper at 350 for an hour to remove any brittleness.
Cut and shape the blade as desired.

When the blade and tang are done, sand the rod flat to be the right thickness. All you need is threads on the edges.
 
Patrice I'm glad Karl chimed in, I looked over one of his takedowns in Janesville a month ago
and the simplicity of what you see on the video is as clean as it gets.
Ken.
 
kc custom said:
Patrice I'm glad Karl chimed in, I looked over one of his takedowns in Janesville a month ago
and the simplicity of what you see on the video is as clean as it gets.
Click to expand...

I've inspected a couple of Karl's takedowns too. I think that's the way to go :thumbup:
 
That is surely the way to go....if you have a long enough piece of stock, .....or you forge the tangs,...... and you have threading dies.

But, that wasn't Patrice's question.

If you only have 12" of damascus bar, because an additional 6" would have cost you another $100, adding a tang extension is an affordable and practical solution.
In cases like this, I often weld on a same size bar of mild steel and draw/grind a tang from that. On other cases, I will add a 1/4" rod, and thread it myself.
 
b_rogers said:
I can't answer your question, but i am curious about this as well..

1/4 x 28 fasteners can be a pain to find, thats the same as the stock and grip screw on a m16 / ar15. I had to order them, no local hardware store had them.
Click to expand...
1/4 28 is standard 1/4 inch fine thread........stronger for the same diameter than 1/4 20(which is standard). I just make my own bolts and nuts etc, but it is not hard to find them around here at an auto parts place.......and I live in the sticks.
Darcy:)
 
Back on topic, Mike Carter has a great pictorial on "no-weld buttcaps" over on Knifedogs somewhere. His procedure is similar to what Stacy described, but without the welding (duh :p).
 
Karl B. Andersen said:
I use 10-32 for my smaller hunters and such and 12-28 for the larger knives.
Using threaded rods is just too much work. I have done a boat load of take down knives and can see little justification of adding work to the project.
Threading the existing tang is just a LOT! easier.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bv_zFuspiRM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ER1RGnlTd_w
Click to expand...

Karl and the others with experience on this.

Do you have any tips on how you file that tang round and to the correct size ?

Is it all just eyeball, or is there a system ?


And around here, I can get 1/4 and # 10 but
# 12 screws, nuts, taps, dies are all pretty uncommon.
 
Count,
I take the tang and make it square at the end ( The rest can stay rectangular). I then knock off the corners to make it an octagion. This is easy to make round. I put a slight taper to it so the die runs on easy. No need to have the roundness and size exact to .001" - the cutting of the die will make it round and the right size. I usually shoot for it to be about right, plus a few thousandths. Lube the die well and it will go down the tang easily. I usually tap the pommel, too.

If you are having problems up there with SAE thread sizes, just do it all in metric - 5X0.8 and 6X1.0mm will do most tangs just fine.
 
Thanks Stacy

No problems getting most SAE sizes, just #12
One old wall chart I have has 12, but the new ones don't.

Metricification hasn't helped us here as far as I can see.

As long as the US us using inches, we will too.
It's a good thing because even though I was schooled in metric, my parents raised us in inches and my high school shop classes were too.

I still think in fractions and thousandths of on inch.

I use Celsius for weather, Fahrenheit for cooking and heat treating
kilometres for driving, except on country roads where the blocks are 1 1/4 miles
inches for metalwork
Buy gas in Litres, buy oil in US quarts, do my cooking baking and canning in Imperial cups, pints and quarts
Weigh myself and buy butter by the pound, but all other foods by the gram or kilogram.
car parts in inches AND millimetres, depending on where that part was made.
Glass is in millimetres, hoses are in inches.
and we buy our lumber in the inches and feet standard sizes

Lots of Chinese built stuff has metric threads, but with inch sized screw heads - or the reverse.
 
Last edited:
I have done a hinged "clevis" type setup using 10-32 or 1/4-24 carriage bolts on some BIG bowies, but normally, I just grind down the tang and thread it. With that said, my handles are filled with epoxy. I think that Harvey Dean used a clevis setup in his D guard bowie video, (good video to have) but most of the takedown knives that I have seen like Karl's have a solid threaded tang.
 
I am sorry I forgot to tank you guys for all the info in this thread. :o Exactly what I wanted to know.
And Stacy was right, my main concern was because of the cost of materials sometimes.
But I'll look into going all the way through and Treading the tang when cost is not an issue Karl, thanks. :thumbup:
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top