tapered tang?-function?

[Stillhunter]

Hello,

I have just recently been bitten by knifemaking curiousity and am sucking up knowledge as fast as I can. One thing I haven't been able to find is:
Is ther a reason for a tapered tang? Is it functional? Decorative?

All help is appreciated.

Stillhunter

PS-Is the Loveless video on knifemaking worth the money? Is it clear for a BRAND NEW newbie? I have plenty of woodworking experience and a some metalworking, but no welding or knifemaking.

 

[Corduroy]

The taper-tang is a functional feature, though I also think it's quite attractive. On a slab-tang knife, a full-thickness tang would be quite heavy. For example, if you have a 4.5" blade and a 4.5" handle, your handle will likely have nearly as much area (in profile) as the blade. Now, if you imagine that the blade has a lot of metal removed by grinding, your knife is already substantially handle-heavy and you haven't even added scales yet!

One option is to taper the tang to remove a lot of the metal there as well. This is somewhat tricky because it requires a good flat grind and your guard and handle joints will no longer be 90-degrees so careful fitting is required. But no big deal to get a nicely balanced knife, right?

Another option is to skeletonize the tang by drilling lots of holes in it. These holes will fill with epoxy and slightly increase the strength with which the slabs are held on, too. The down side is that you have to do this a lot to remove much weight.

A final option is to compromise your handle shape to something very narrow in profile, so it thus has a smaller, lighter slab-tang. I think it's far better not to make compromises when other options are available.

Bob Loveless is credited with inventing the taper-tang. Like many of his methods, it's one of the more difficult ways to do things but also yields some of the nicest results.

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-Drew Gleason
Little Bear Knives

 

[Ed Caffrey]

I'm sure you've handled a custom full tang knife that has that really nice "feel" to it. Chances are that the knife had a distal tapered blade, as well as a tapered tang. These two features lend more balance to a knife than anything else. I have found over the years that almost any blade with both will, have an excellent balance and feel, up to and including blades of 12", if done correctly. Another added benifit is increased strength. Consider a blade that is the same thickness throughout. If flexed, stess is concentrated in one location due to the even thickness. On the other hand, a blade with a distal taper (thick at the ricasso, and tapering to the point) causes stress to be distributed over a wide arc, allowing the blade to endure more stress.

http://www.mtn-webtech.com/~caffrey

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Ed Caffrey
"The Montana Bladesmith"




[This message has been edited by Ed Caffrey (edited 16 September 1999).]

 

[Pete Peterson]

Taprered tang credit may go to Bob but I have a nice hunter that was made back in the 1870's that has a tapered tang, Bob may be an old dog, but not that old!!!

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old pete