Tapered Tangs

S

stanwood

Joined
Feb 18, 2000
Messages
4
Does anyone have any tips on working with tapered tang blades. I am having trouble getting the handle material (Ironwood) to fit flush against the bolster and tang. It's seems to want to bow out away from the tang no matter how much I work with it. Any pointers or do I just continue to sand until it fits correctly?

Thanks in advance!

Stanwood
 
Most of the Hunters I make have tapered tangs but I have little demand for bolsters!! On a knife with bolsters, I grind the taper just past the point of the front of the bolster. This will result in the bolster and the handle material being on the same plane. Everything must fit together, lay flat and have NO gaps BEFORE you glue it together!! The hardest part is drilling the pin holes through the bolsters that are both sitting on an angle!! This must be done with a precision vise and a solid drill press or milling machine! Most of the time I dovetail the bolster so front of the handle material is captured under it. This makes a stronger assembly and improves the apearance of the bolster/handle material joint.
I hope this is of some help
eek.gif

Neil

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It is much much easier to drill the holes before the tang is tapered. I use bolsters on most all my knives. and so long as the tang is tapered to beyond the front of the bolsters, everything should fit easily. IF everything is flat. I've worked a bit learning how to make flat flat tangs and no-line bolster fits, especially since my shop is only minimally equipped. The only fudging I sometimes need to do is at the front of the scales where I often have to adjust the angle a bit to get a perfect fit. The bolsters and scales should lay dead flat against the tang however. If you're trying to get scale and bolster parts flat on your belt grinder platen, that just won't work IMO. I can do the tangs that way, but not the parts.

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Jerry Hossom
www.hossom.com
 
I'm still trying to figure this out. Mr. Hossom, are you talking about drilling just the tang before it's tapered, or are you saying to clamp the bolsters and drill through the whole affair, then unclamp, grind the taper onto the tang, and then bolt the bolsters up?
It seems the first method leaves out the all-important step of getting the holes in the bolster pieces at the right places and angles to go through cleanly.
It seems the second method would result in th holes in the bolsters intersecting in a "V" shape and make pinning the bolsters impossible.
Obviously I'm missing a big step here. Please enlighten me before the hamster gets tired . . . :O

Oh, and I'm taking a sculpture class at my college this semester. Turns out we have a foundry! We can pour aluminum and bronze, using some kind of sand molds. I haven't seen it used yet.
The question is, can I cast bolsters onto a tapered tang without ruining the temper? Seems this would be easiest and VERY secure but I assume the foundry reaches temps that would ruin the steel.
Thanks!
 
Sorry, I knew that was too simple.

Here's how I do it all. Have a seat.

I first drill all the holes in the blade (just the blade, not the bolsters or scales). In my case I use three 1/8" holes for the bolsters, two 9/32" holes for the 1/4" mosaic pins I use in the handle, and one 9/32" hole for the thong hole liner.

I then taper the tang, grind the blade, heat treat, finish, etc.

When I'm ready to mount the bolsters, I cut two slabs (1/8" or 3/16") of 416SS longer than the knife blade is wide. I drill through the blade holes into one of the bolsters, matching those three holes. I then use that bolster as the template for drilling the other bolster. Then I finish up the forward and rearward surfaces with the bolsters held together with loose pins. This makes them match exactly.

Then I put the bolsters on the blade. 3 pins usually require a little pushing to get them through both bolsters and the blade. That done, I cut off the excess pins to about 1/8" on each side. Using a 4# hammer, I bang the hell out of the pins until they virtually disappear. OK, now the bolsters are on and even.

Next I epoxy one of the handle slabs to the tang, snugging it up against the bolster. Once set, I drill three 1/4" holes for the pins and thong hole liner. I also trim the mounted scale so it is about the size of the tang. (This makes the later finishing a lot easier).

Then I epoxy the other scale to the tang as before. Once that is set, I drill back through the first scale holes and through the second scale. I epoxy the pins and thong hole liner in place.

Once that is all set up, I trim everything with a saw, and begin grinding it all to shape, bolsters and handle slabs together. Doing it this way is pretty certain to get everything to fit and line-up.

This is a whole lot of making a knife in a few sentences. If this still doesn't make sense, feel free to email or call me.

If I got close, ask more questions.

In any case, good luck.


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Jerry Hossom
www.hossom.com

[This message has been edited by GaKnife (edited 02-19-2000).]
 
John,

No need to peen the pins, just roughen the surface and epoxy. As for the book, I'd rather make knives. Thanks for the thought though.

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Jerry Hossom
www.hossom.com
 
Jerry,

Do you solder or epoxy the bolsters, or do the pins hold them on alright?

Ryan

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For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Romans 6:23


 
Ryan, I just use the pins. Epoxy would prevent a no-line joint. Solder is something I avoid whenever I can because it is hard for me to control and it's corrosive. When I get done hammering the pins, they and the bolsters are one...

I'm getting a good bit of email on this, so if any of you have more questions, please feel free to ask them. This is one of the more difficult to understand and, once understood, easiest parts of making a knife.

I'm always glad to help.

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Jerry Hossom
www.hossom.com
 
Excellent explainations that make it much easier to understand--Dan

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Lead,follow, or get the hell out of the way!
 
Thanks, Jerry.

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For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Romans 6:23


 
It may help everyone to know that I did this entirely wrong for at least 5 years, so don't feel badly if you've been wandering around trying different things. There may well be other ways that are better still, but this has worked well for me, and I am generally able to get no-line bolster fits and can mount ivory scales without seeing a gap. Some of that comes from getting the tang flat, but even a flat tag wouldn't help the way I used to do it.

One other thing, I flatten the back of the bolster and final sand them by hand at 400 grit on a piece of titanium plate, so they are dead level and smooth. If the very corners are rounded a little, that won't matter if you cut the bolsters oversize and keep the rounded corners outside the blade area.

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Jerry Hossom
www.hossom.com
 
I purchased a granite surface plate from Harbor Freight for about $35. It's a solid chunk of granite about 2 1/2" thick. Weighs about 40-50 lbs. Flat to within .002"+-. Takes a 9"x 11" sheet a sandpaper. I've used it for about 4 yrs and it is still flat. Works great. It does take alot of elbow grease.
 
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