URGENT: suggestion on pinning my hidden tang handle

turbodog10

turbodog10

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Aug 9, 2013
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So I'm in the middle of my first hidden tang knife. This is a small EDC blade that will be going in a pocket clip sheath. My question at this point is: Should I pin the tang with a small mosaic pin or a tube?

My tang is JUST long enough (i think) to allow the handle to end just after the tube so that it can be at the butt of the knife. Plus, if it's a little short, putting a good lanyard in the tube will extend the usable grip slightly. But if my handle needs to be longer, I can extend it well past the pin if I pin it with the mosaic pin.

What are your thoughts?

aFgwe0D.jpg


TkhgNaW.jpg
 
Heck bro, I would always prefer a pin that actually penetrated the tang. A tube for a lanyard is a second question to me on that knife. If you will have enough scale after the hidden tang, it can go there if needed. I think you just need to decide if you want that knife to have a lanyard hole. As far as pinning the scale, I would pre-mark the scale, so you know where to drill and get a few pins into the tang, just my .02 but I've done it that way on the couple of hidden tangs I put together.
 
I think the pin would look better if centered on the handle. there is no law that says it has to be at the end of the tang. ;) Then if you wanted a lanyard tube, put it near the end of the handle.

randy
 
I'm with Randy. The pin ought to be centered vertically on the handle, and in a place that doesn't look goofy front to back. There's no rule that the pin has to be at the end of the tang. Because of the tang design you've got, I'm having a hard time seeing a spot where a pin would look good.

Honestly, with what you have there, I'd suggest a mechanical joint with some allthread and a threaded butt cap or nut. Use a dremel or angle grinder to cut a keyhole shaped slot in the tang from the butt of the tang to the hole you have drilled. The slot should be narrower at the point it enters the drilled hole. Hammer a piece of allthread in there. Drill your handle block all the way through for the allthread to come out. This pic is a more complex knife, but maybe you can get the idea.

IMG_0195.jpg
 
Thanks for your input, guys. I'm not sure you all are understanding what I'm discussing here. Of course, whichever I chose to do, it would be centered vertically on the handle.

If I used the tube, it would be in place of a pin. It would go through the hole in the tang- same as the mosaic pin would. That would be at the butt of the handle because a lanyard tube only looks good that way.

If i used the mosaic pin, I could make the handle extend further back past the pin, but the pin would be closer to the butt than the guard. The reason I would choose this option is only to extend the handle a little further. Look at how long this would be in relation to my average sized hand in my picture at the top.

I think I'm leaning more towards the tube so I can put a square braided lanyard in it. If the acutal handle is a little short, the lanyard should make up for it. But please, keep giving suggestions!

Jason, I'm not wanting to put a pommell on the end of this knife so the thread idea wont work here.
 
Other than for looks, mosaic pins are just about useless. They are more for decoration than strength.
I suggest the lanyard tube or a solid, peened pin.
 
rwn2000 said:
I think the pin would look better if centered on the handle. there is no law that says it has to be at the end of the tang. ;) Then if you wanted a lanyard tube, put it near the end of the handle.

randy
Click to expand...
Well he's said he would vertically center the pin--so I would say this another way--make the handle as long as your scale will allow and the put a tube in--for lanyard or not--and put some pins through the tang, to achieve symmetry you could always do a 4 pin pattern matching them up vertically and horizontally. I also strongly agree with Bill about the tube vs. the mosaic.
 
aFgwe0D.jpg



I'd say

Next time, put your tang in the center of the blade height.

right now it's so close to the top of the handle it's going to peek out or break out.
 
@12345678910, my reasoning for putting the tang towards the top is I want to make the handle area near the guard more shallow vertically than at the butt. Does that make sense? If I had centered the tang, that wouldn't be possible.
Furthermore, after drilling out the slot for the handle yesterday, I'm not worried about anything busting out of that wood. The rest of the handle is Zircote and, MY LORD, is that crap hard. Super hard to drill into!!!

In other news, I decided to try and put the mosaic pin through the tang about midway and also put the tube in the already existing hole. I have some high speed bits for hardened steel so I went to try and drill the existing hole a little larger. I knew the size bit i was using would cut close to the edge of the tang but I figured it wouldn't be put under too much stress in use so I wasn't really worried about that. Well, It ended up just drilling the whole end off the tang. Darn. At least I'll still be able pin it further up the tang after I drill this next hole...
I try to drill a 1/8" hole around the middle of the tang and it just bends my bit. Darn again! So I go to my big bit... It just snapped the tang in half....

e3x8IEol.jpg


So, as it turns out, there will be no holes in this tang. No pins to secure the tang. Anyone have success securing a hidden tang insde a handle solely with JB weld??? Notice, I did at least file some teeth into the tang that I hope will give the JB Weld some extra grip.

Someone tell me this is still gonna be a reasonably tough knife... please.
 
turbodog10 said:
I have some high speed bits for hardened steel so I went to try and drill the existing hole a little larger.

Someone tell me this is still gonna be a reasonably tough knife... please.
Click to expand...

HSS is not for hardened steel


If you use the knife for cutting and avoid smashing the bejesus out of it, it should cut for a long time.


After all if our ancestors lived with flint and obsidian knives, can't we get along without battoning a blade through a concrete block.
 
Thanks for your comfort, 12345678910!

My hope is that since this is a smaller EDC style blade, it shouldn't ever be used for anything too rigorous. Realistically, Whittling seems like the hardest task it should ever be asked to perform. That could put a lot of pressure on this part of the handle and break the knife loose inside of it... but I'm keeping my fingers crossed that my JB Welding is up to the job!
 
12345678910 said:
I'd say

Next time, put your tang in the center of the blade height.

right now it's so close to the top of the handle it's going to peek out or break out.
Click to expand...

Well, it pains me to admit you were right about the tang being too high in the handle. I got it all put together the night before last and started sanding on it at lunch and almost immediately sanded into the slot for the tang- which was filled with grey JB Weld that contrasted irreconcilably with the dark Zircote... I managed to rip that entire handle off and leave the guard unscathed. I, more carefully this time, drilled out the handle pieces, and threw it all back together using epoxy instead of JB Weld this time. Here's as far as I got last night before I crashed at about 12:30.

5jbTtrl.jpg


Tonight, it will get an etched logo, sharpened and a sheath. BTW, the beautiful leather it sits on in the pic is for the sheath- from a 5 lb bag of scraps I bought from Saddleback earlier this week! They make the nicest leather products I've ever handled. If you've never heard of Saddleback, do yourself a favor: http://www.saddlebackleather.com/
 
Can anyone give me some tips on how to really bring out the chatoyance in wood for pictures??? None of my pictures are doing justice to my beautiful handles!
 
Well it turned out looking nice.

You are not the first maker to grind into the tang channel! You won't be the last either. It happens.

I was concerned about it as well.
 
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