Who uses skeletonized tangs?

[matthew rapaport]

Got a custom recently from a maker named Mike Woslowski. Nice guy who happens to live on my block, now back into making one particular hunting knife of his own design. Generous working choil, 1/8" thick blade nice and wide (1.75") flat ground from the spine, and even distal tapered starting at the ricasso! All and all a very distinctive knife, and one more distinction is its incredible LIGHTNESS especially for its size (4" blade in front of the choil, about 9" over all).

The reason it is so light is that its tang is skeletonized. The tang goes all the way through to the end of the handle slabs like most other modern handle-slabbed full-tang knives, but the tang has nothing in its center, but rather a 3/16th inch skeleton to which the slabs are attached. This makes it LOOK like any other full-tang slab handled knife after the slabs are attached, but it weighs far less than you would expect looking at it. Indeed my much smaller Dozier K1 weighs more than this knife.

I'll try to post a picture of it this weekend on this thread, and alas Mike has no web site, but I'm curious about this because I've seen few other makers who use a skeletonized tang and was wondering how common, or uncommon it might be. Right off the bat I can see some significant plusses, and only two minuses in this idea! On the plus side, the knife is ultra light making is disappear on the belt dispite its size. Its balance is also perfect being just behind the choil. The only disadvantages I can see are that the junction between the ricasso and the tang would not be as strong as it would be with a non-skeletonized tang, but this knife is obviously designed with fine cutting in mind and not chopping or prying. Second, of course, you could not pound the point into anything by hitting the back of the tang with a log as you'd probably deform it, but again, this is not the kind of thing you would want to do with a fine hunter anyway...

Yet it does seem to me that this design goes against the current popular trend in making even small to medium sized hunters "poundable" if necessary. Is this why the skeletonized tang is not seen more often? Its weight advantage would seem pretty appealing to real hunters. Mike sells as many as he makes, almost all to his hunting buddies, so I know the knife is well used.

Changing the subject just a little, Mike used to make lots of knives, the big choil being one of his earmarks. He's told me stories of some of his knife show adventures, and mentioned a lot of famous names I know from these lists. I hope some of you reading this will remember him.

Thanks...

 

[R.W.Clark]

Almost every maker who produces slab handled knives use this method. The method I use is slighlty differant. I drill out the tang leaving a web like structure. While not quite as light as the one in your post, I feel that the increase in wieght is overshadowed by the extra strength gained. Combine reduction holes with a tapered tang and you get a light yet strong piece.

Just remember that no reputable maker will use any method that would make the knife too weak for its intended purpose. And every maker has a slightly differant way of approaching wieght reduction.

 

[matthew rapaport]

Well that's interesting thanks Ron. I knew handles were drilled out, but thought it more to adjust balance, and of course for the pins. I hadn't realized how extensive the practice.

This piece is unusually light for its size. Certainly compared to the other hunting/skinning knives I have in my collection, more than any other type. I agree that no maker should make the knife too weak for its intended purpose. Surely no human hand could crush this tang. I suspect that a good sized log pounded on the back would be enough to do it, but it would also likely break the very fine distally tapered blade too, so there wouldn't be much point to pounding on it, or trying to chop with it.. It is clearly designed to be a <b><i>cutting</i></b> instrument first and foremost with a high level of control-ability for a blade with this much reach. I haven't seen yet how well the edge holds up (steel is D2).