tang holes. drilling, burning, ...?

D

dustfurn

Joined
Oct 2, 2007
Messages
72
How do you guys form tang holes in handle material for your hidden tang knives? I've tried drilling, and burning in so far...both "worked", but it was messy and took a lot of work. I wouldn't mind putting in so much work if the end result wasn't such a mess. What techniques do you guys use?

Thanks!
Dustin
 
+2 drill and file, for a file I bought some cheapo rasps and ground them down to the different sizes I normally use.
 
drill, chisel, burn, scrape with one of those little hook thingies, forget what they are called, nick wheeler posted a picture of one in that big thread a little bit ago
 
John Perry sells a handle broch that works great. drill two holes that are the same diameter as the tang is thick take the handle broch and connect the holes. takes about three minutes in wood and it is super clean. John makes several widths.
 
I designed a guide jig for drilling out tang holes with just a hand drill. It is just as accurate as using a drill press and a much faster. Even on most drill presses the quill travel is not enough so you have to keep moving the table up while drilling. Drilling horz allow the sawdust to clear better then vert also.

Find and mark the center on each side and punch a small divot/
http://i63.photobucket.com/albums/h151/BrentFinnigan/drilljig3-web.jpg

Index the alignment rod into the divot and lightly secure the paddle bolts.
http://i63.photobucket.com/albums/h151/BrentFinnigan/drilljig4-web.jpg

The alignment rod is used to line up the jig on the left to right and up and down axis. Similar to sighting in a rifle scope.
http://i63.photobucket.com/albums/h151/BrentFinnigan/drilljig5-web.jpg

http://i63.photobucket.com/albums/h151/BrentFinnigan/drilljig6-web.jpg

When the jig is aligned and secured it's then put in a vise and drilled out. The 1/4" hole can be used as a pilot hole for larger bit sizes.
http://i63.photobucket.com/albums/h151/BrentFinnigan/drilljig7-web.jpg

I used a 14" bit to show that it came out dead center fromt he other side.
http://i63.photobucket.com/albums/h151/BrentFinnigan/drilljig8-web.jpg
 
I usually drill undersized then burn most of the way in. The clean out uses a trick I learned from Dan Fogg. He made a kind of saw using a reciprocal saw blade. He took the blade and ground all the teeth off from the 'front end' to the last couple or 3 teeth, then thin the blade to fit the hole. With a handle on the front you can pull out (saw?) the charred parts with little time or trouble. He also opened the back a little wider than the front to give the epoxy more bite. With a few chiseled notches in the tang I have never had one fail - yet.

Just what I do,
Lynn
 
You will find it useful to make your own long shafted chisels of thin stock to help open up the drilled hole. It takes a while to get the hang of it, plus you find with experience that you will approach different woods differently. I would advise learning to do a drilled and burned through tangs as well as hdden tangs. easier really, and fun.
 
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