what type of tang for paring knives?

[bronyblacksmith]

I have a 12inch by 1/8 circular saw blade that was given to me by a friend of mine who is also a knife maker. but what I am asking is to use less metal i was thinking cutting about 1.5 - 2 inches for the handle and drawing it out to about 3 - 4 stick tang.
or just leaving it half tang. let me know what you think.

 

[Hesparus]

1) Assuming your construction is good, a paring knife won't need a full tang. Hidden and partial tangs can be used for all kinds of kitchen knives.
2) Steel is cheap enough that you don't need to (and maybe shouldn't) design your knives around material conservation.
3) 1/8" is pretty thick for a paring knife, unless you're planning on grinding or forging it down. (That said, I've made 1/8" thick paring knives before and they work, just not as well as thinner ones.)
4) Is there a particular reason you want to use the saw blade instead of fresh, known steel?

But if you must do what you're describing, you could try making a petty (Japanese paring knife) with a wa handle, which uses only a small amount of steel for the tang.

- Chris

 

[Stacy E. Apelt - Bladesmith]

I have made hundreds of paring knives, and all were full tang.