tang straightening 101...?

gearGOON

gearGOON

Joined
Apr 25, 2002
Messages
70
perhaps one of you gentlemen with metal working experience could give me a hand. yesterday i received my 17" kumar WWII villager...it's a great blade, but the handle was pretty crooked (the end of the tang was about 3/4" off of the centerline of the blade). i decided that this would bug me too much to leave alone a so i must fix it (uhoh)! i used uncle bill's handle removal method (remove buttcap then boil handle for 10 minutes...worked like a charm) and took the knife apart.

*WARNING - if you're gonna try the handle boiling trick to remove your handle, DO NOT use one of your wife's good pots...when she sees the rock hard laha mess left behind she will kick your @#&*

so now ive got a good blade with a tang that needs to be bent straight without breaking or heating to the point of messing up the heat treat on the rest of the blade. should i just beat on it with a hammer? try to bend it in a vice (i'm not sure this would work...the blade tang connection is pretty thick)? or just send it to a professional an let them do it?

any advice on how to do this would be great.

thanks all,
e.
 
Do a search for "tang" and "heat" and/or "bend" in both this forum
and in the forums of www.swordforum.com.

I've seen this discussed before And it seems that
the concensus was heating and bending could be done
on the tang given some degree of care.

Since the tang is already soft, it may be that a gentle heat is recommended over the bent region to resoften the work hardening.

Do the search. :)
 
so i did the search suggested by ddean and here's what i think i'm thinking about trying:

1.wrap blad in wet rags / paper towels and heat tang with torch until dull red(?) then let air cool (this is to anneal the tang since it's probably been work hardened during production).

2.hammer the tang straight (i'll probably do this with a mild steel plate layed on the concrete in the parking lot of my apartment building...just one more reason for my nieghbors to fear me :) )

3.file the tang reletively smooth to remove any major nick or gouges.

how does that all sound to you metal smart guys? i'm combining what info i could glean from the old posts with my limited knowledge of metal working from college (mostly soft metals)...so i might be seriously wrong on some things. i'm most unsure about step one...do even need to do it? if so, how hot should i get the metal? if i get the metal hot enough to anneal the tang am i going to mess up the hardening of the lower part of the blade?

thanks,
e.
 
..If the tang snaps on you, you'll know that it was improperly tempered, over hardened. A while back a forumite mentioned that they had a tang failure that was due to accidental hardening of the tang.

Keith
 
Can you determine where the tang is bent?
If the bend is in only one area you may be able to bend the tang straight easier than you can hammer it. If you straighten it during daylight hours, you need only the slightest bit of red for enough heat. Pushing the tang end into a crack in the sidewalk or similar hole may enable you to push on the blade with enough leverage for bending.
As silly as it sounds, be sure you want the tang straight. Large knives may have the tang or handle offset so your wrist can stay straight when using the knife, especially for chopping.
 
art,
i considered the offset...i compared this knife to my other khuks (15" AK, chiruwa AK, 12" AK, 14" villager, etc.) and they all seem to have a gentle wave shape from tip to butt. if this one was like the others, i wouldn't have messed with it. however the bend in this one is extreme enough to warrant some work (at least in my strange little world).

when you said i only needed the slightest red for enough heat, does that mean i should bend (or hammer) while hot? i had thought heating (then air cooling) was to soften the area, but i wasn't sure if i could actually generate enough heat with my propane torch to aid in the bending.

thanks,
e.
 
If the bend is localised to one place, and not at the very thickest part of the tang, your propane torch will generate enough heat to aid in the bending. You can hammer or bend at a "black" heat with no color showing, especially in bright light, so start trying before you see any red.
If you just want to make sure the tang is stress free, sand the area bright and heat it to bright blue, which is a much lower heat. Let it air cool, don't try to hurry the cooling with water.
I stupidly assumed you were talking about heating to hammer or bend.
 
hey man...nuthin' stupid about it :) i've never tried this before so all ideas are useful. maybe what i'll do is heat the metal and then let it air cool to relieve stress, then reheat and try the bending / hammering. that way if even if i don't have enough heat to help the bending, i'll at least have relieved the stress beforehand. of course i'll make sure to use the wet towels to try and reduce the heat in the blade.

thanks,
e.
 
I just look and drool at khuks. Good Luck and I'll shut up while I'm ahead.
 
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