Tapered tangs on kitchen knives

H

Hubert S.

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Dec 14, 2019
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So, I just built myself a surface grinding attachment and I am wondering about tapered tangs on kitchen knives...

I normally use 0.08" stock and end up a bit under that at the ricasso when all is said and done. I am wondering whether it even makes sense to taper the tang on such thin stock, and what the minimum thickness at the butt end should be. Can I take the end down to say 0.02" for a 4:1 taper, or am I going to run into problems if I try to make it that thin? Any advice would be appreciated, and if anybody has pictures of tapered tang kitchen knives, I would really love to see them.
 
I've taken mine as thin as 8 thou at the end of the handle without any issue. You have to be careful handling it before attaching the handle but it's not much of a problem.

Edit: typo
 
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I like 3:1
Sometimes I do 2:1 on difficult steels because the steel mass gets less, it gets hot and wants to lift off the plate
 
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HSC /// said:
The point is that it improves the visual flow of the knife. It looks less like a production knife In my opinion
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Even the subtle taper on this knife looks great. Aside from the visual improvement, I am hoping that a tapered tang might improve the balance a bit.
 
It took almost a year since I started this thread, but I finally made a knife with a tapered tang. It's a 7" santoku from AEB-L with a handle made from wenge. The blade is about 75 thou at the spine and the tang tapers down to just over twenty thou. I tapered the tang on the SGA after I had already ground the bevels, so I took a bunch of magnets out of the chuck in order for the tang to sit flat. I inserted a thin piece of mild steel into the last magnet slot of the chuck as a stop just in case the magnets in the tang area were not strong enough to hold the blade. tt turned out that the stop was not really needed and the remaining magnets held the blade just fine. Grinding the bevels before tapering the tang turned out great as all the little scratches I put into the ricasso area while grinding the bevels came out during tapering.

The scales are from an off-cut of wenge I had left over from making some wa handles out of a larger block. I cut the piece in half and put the two cut faces on the butt end which created a nice chevron pattern. I tapered the scales on the SGA and installed them with corby bolts and epoxy. This is only my second full tang kitchen knife, and I immediately nicked the spine when I went to shape the handle on the grinder. Fortunately, the nick was not very deep and came out easily at the end. After that little incident, I decided to do most of the shaping by hand though.

I normally make wa handles, but I think I will try to do more full tang knives with tapered tangs in the future. I really like the way this turned out. It looks pretty sleek and has nice balance, and the handle feels pretty comfortable. I think I'll try to go even thinner on the next one.

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Nicely done. I taper the tangs on my kitchen knives on all but the 1/16 thick paring knives. 3/32 all gets a taper.
 
I've tapered tangs on skinning knives with 3/16" spine, but even considered it for kitchen knives since most all are <.090? thick, and many in the .070" range. Just didn't seem like worth the bother, but looking at the tapered tang above I just might have to do that on the next full tang kitchen knife.

That's why I enjoy this site, I'm constantly learning new stuff.
 
I see the esthetics of a tapered tang on a hunter or other knife with a reasonably thick spine. I don't see any reason to do it on a thin kitchen knife. Most of mine are from .060-.090" stock and at least .010" thinner after HT and cleanup. Tapering the tang just doesn't seem to make any sense at those thicknesses.

I read how people claim a tapered tang changes the balance of the knife. Well, maybe on a monster full tang bowie, but on any knife below .100" I doubt you could tell the difference. Maybe one of the tapered tang guys will weigh a blade just before and after tapering to let us know the difference. I suspect it is a very small percentage.
I find fat handles to be a far worse cause of handle heavy knives. You can change the balance a lot in handle shaping and thinning.
 
Stacy E. Apelt - Bladesmith said:
I see the esthetics of a tapered tang on a hunter or other knife with a reasonably thick spine. I don't see any reason to do it on a thin kitchen knife. Most of mine are from .060-.090" stock and at least .010" thinner after HT and cleanup. Tapering the tang just doesn't seem to make any sense at those thicknesses.

I read how people claim a tapered tang changes the balance of the knife. Well, maybe on a monster full tang bowie, but on any knife below .100" I doubt you could tell the difference. Maybe one of the tapered tang guys will weigh a blade just before and after tapering to let us know the difference. I suspect it is a very small percentage.
I find fat handles to be a far worse cause of handle heavy knives. You can change the balance a lot in handle shaping and thinning.
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When I started this thread almost a year ago, I was wondering whether it was worth the bother with a thin kitchen knife as well. Having finished one from 0.082" stock, I would say it is. I like the look of it and it changed the balance noticeably.

I just did my second tapered tang, same pattern. Since I saw your post before going in the shop, I weighed the blade before and after. It weighed 91g before tapering the tang and 70g after for a weight saving of 23%. I was a bit surprised by how much weight came off. Tapering the tang moved the balance point about 3/4"-1" forward. This one tapers from 0.074" down to 0.018" over roughly a 5" length.
 
If it were just about balance, there are easier and faster ways to achieve that. But a tapered tang is aesthetically appealing, adding another visual effect that I find both attractive and challenging. Personally, I stop at blades .120 thick but appreciate the effort you put in that blade. I like it.
 
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