Tapered Tang Tutorial

Can you add page 2 and 3 to the tutorial? It is always good to see the methods used by others.
 
One thing Brown uses his big wheel to cut the groove but all the people I have been associated with use their 1 1/2 inch wheel to cut the groove. I taper using a push stick on the bottom to press in on the platen to cut material off. When i get both sides finished I go to my disc grinder with 120 grit sheet on it and cut horizontally to make sure it is even. Rick Menefee uses a magnet to hold the tang and pushes the bottom from the tang to the guard area to cut his upside down.
I use my edge center marker to mark the tang to make sure they are equal on the end of the tang.
 
Why do they grind the grove into the tang first? Why not mark the centre line of the tang and grind down to that?
That's what I do for distal tapers
 
I grind a trough on both sides of the tang.

Mark the thickness of the end.

Grind a 45 degree there just like you do to the edge.

With end up, Blade Magnet,

I grind toward the line on one side and move the grind down the tang. You can see if it is even because of the of the grind line.

Keep grinding to where you want it.

Do other side.

Having the butt up allows you to control the thickness.

You can tell when it is done end down, many times the tang get super thin. Then comes the "I meant to do that" lol
 
I do tapered tangs as Adam has outlined with one twist, I use sharpie marker to ensure the tang is flat as I grind. After 50 tapered tangs I am finally getting the hang of it.
 
navman said:
I do tapered tangs as Adam has outlined with one twist, I use sharpie marker to ensure the tang is flat as I grind. After 50 tapered tangs I am finally getting the hang of it.
Click to expand...

I left out using Dye Chem and use a glass platen

Dye chem or sharpie is a great aid to show what is going on.
 
Can anyone give some guidance as to when you might want to do a tapered tang?
I profiled a large chefs knife with a full tang the other day, and i'm wondering if i should try tapering it's tang (mostly i think it looks cool). the blade is around 25cm, it'll be ~3mm at the base with a full flat grind. I'm worried it will move the centre of mass too far forward, and i'm better off leaving the tang square.
 
You do not "need" to taper a tang.

You taper a tang because how it looks, it shows a high level of skill and customers want it.

In fact some customers want a tapered tang so much they want it on blades that should not have one. A large heavy blade should not have a lot of wieght removed from the tang, doing so makes the blade tip heavy.

But people still want it on even big blades due to aesthetics
 
Bob Loveless showed us how "Sexy" a Tapered tang knife can look....A double Hollow Ground tapered tang BIG BEAR is one of the most beautiful designed knives I've had the opportunity to own...:cool::thumbsup:
 
From what I understand about how chopping works removing weight from the base will let the tip rotate around the center of axis faster. So removing weight from the tang will let a knife of a given weight chop a little bit harder. That balance may not be a pleasant feel though.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top