Sticking on the handle

[Ophidian]

Hi There, I’ve been following the thread about using Shellac and fitting handles, but I have another question.

I’m working on my second knife, using a Trond stick tang blade. I have drilled a hole down the centre of my block of curly birch, but I am wondering if I can I heat the tang and use this to burn the hole to size for a nice snug fit? Or am I asking for trouble and risking the heat treat of the blade?

I know I could wrap the blade in a cold wet rag.

Thanks for any help

[MushiSushi]

without seeing the blade it's tough to give an accurate opinion ophi

all i can give you is a rough idea of what I think

[Kevin]

Hi There, I’ve been following the thread about using Shellac and fitting handles, but I have another question.

I’m working on my second knife, using a Trond stick tang blade. I have drilled a hole down the centre of my block of curly birch, but I am wondering if I can I heat the tang and use this to burn the hole to size for a nice snug fit? Or am I asking for trouble and risking the heat treat of the blade?

I know I could wrap the blade in a cold wet rag.

Thanks for any help

If its Trond knife then he will know best so ask Trond.........


Otherwise,I cant comment on the Scandi style makers, but I know that that practice is used by some makers......As to will it effect the tempering of the blade...Yes...it could. I have done it with long stick tangs and just heated the end of the tang to burn through which worked ok without getting the blade hot...but you have to be careful. A better way would be to do this bit before the heat treatment stage.

Or you could use a similiar shape/size piece of steel and use that instead so you dont risk damaging the temper.

However......there is problem when pushing hot metal to burn through a wooden tang etc......the wood can over heat and crack!!!!Its happened to me which is why I rarely use that technique any more (hard woods tend to crack easier!).



A good tip I picked up to shape the hole in hidden tangs was to do the usual drilling of holes, then get a wood file and grind the sides of the file down till it less than the width of your tang and use this to file out the hole......

I mostly now mortise my tangs.....cut them in half and mill or chisel the tang area out the stick the two halves back together with epoxy and pin/rivet as usual.

[Ophidian]

It is one of these blades:

http://kniv.net/trond/English/Index.html

But I get the impression that it is a totally mad idea!

[Ophidian]

Ok, thanks.

Ill have a look in my shed and see if I have a old file with a similar sized tang that I can use, otherwise I'll go the other route (cut handle down centre)

[MushiSushi]

how thick is the steel Ophi? .. I'd just take it very carefully and gradually with a very thin chisel (4mm?) and rasps, checking fit regularly.

[Tvividr]

I have drilled a hole down the centre of my block of curly birch, but I am wondering if I can I heat the tang and use this to burn the hole to size for a nice snug fit? Or am I asking for trouble and risking the heat treat of the blade? I know I could wrap the blade in a cold wet rag.

That is the way it was done in the old days, and it still works, but you would risk damaging the HT. Personally I wouldn't do it. Rather use a specialized rasp / file for getting a snug fit.

[Trond]

Ophi, there is nothing wrong with doing it if you follow these instructions to the point.

Before you start to heat the tang, whet some toilet paper, and wrap it around the blade and 5 mm of the tang.
Make sure the toilet paper is really dripping whet during the prosess, when you are almoust in, move the toilet paper from the tang, but not the blade. Do this and you should be fine. When you are finnished, check the collour of the blade, it should now be brass collored in the back part of the blade, if it is not, just blank thats fine, if it is blue, SEND ME THE BLADE
Good luck

[keith_beef]

I've done this, and I've read of other people doing it the same way.

Drill out to more or less the right diameter.

Get your blade, and make sure the tang is clean; if necessary, rub it with emery cloth, just to get off any firescale or other oxidation.

Wrap the blade in cold wet rags, up to nead the shoulder (or whatever you call the place where the tand is drawn out from the blade).

Heat the end of the tang, watching for the oxide colours... You don't want those blue and straw colours getting as far as the shoulder.

Plunge your hot rod into the block

repeat as necessary, but just make sure the blade stays cold.


KKK.

[Ophidian]

Thanks for all your help guys, it gives me a few options. I’m currently seeing just how much I can do by drilling and filing out the hole.

[Ophidian]

Well the handle is on, mainly by drilling out he wood.
I just need to think about the handle shape now.

[Tvividr]

...A good tip I picked up to shape the hole in hidden tangs was to do the usual drilling of holes, then get a wood file and grind the sides of the file down till it less than the width of your tang and use this to file out the hole......

This is what I use:
Top one is a rasp I bought for this purpose, no 2 & 3 is homemade from an old highspeed saw blade. Note that the teeth is going in opposite directions so that one of them will cut when pushing into the hole, and the other will cut when pulling out of the hole. Works very well :approve:
The sawblades in the bottom of the pic are something that could be modified for the same purpose by grinding the back of the blades and glue a handle on.
If one blade isn't thick enough you just glue them together (cleaning the teeth for epoxy before curing) and grind the back afterwards.