Hidden Tang - Step by Step

[ZDP-189]

I don't dare call this a tutorial. Firstly, because much better tutorials exist (link) and secondly, because it's my first attempt and I so made a number of small mistakes that I wouldn't want people to replicate. Essentially, I made this for my own education and as a proof of concept for a friend with whom I hope to do a hidden tang collaboration. With your expectations thus managed, I humbly submit my step-by-step journal of my first hidden tang knife!



Like the Easy Method tutorial, the plan was to quickly and simply assemble a knife from modest but functional components. The resulting knife lacks bells and whistles, but will be a dependable 'using knife'.

TIME (5 hrs): The knife was substantially completed while I was chatting with jbaron in the chatroom over the course of 3 hours. Even with all distraction, the knife took about 5 hours, including some clear up time and a bottle feed for the baby. :trink26:

COST: (ca. £14) A 'second grade' blade from Trond cut the cost substantially. The blade has an indentation on one side, and Trond made me promise not to sell the knife, but I still feel the rough forging adds charm. I also saved a lot of money using a thin sliver of ebony from a block costing EUR9.50 from Brisa; the remainder of the block is still good for a handle. The main handle slabs are Maple Dymondwood laminate from Sheffield Supply; they cost something like $3.5 for the pair and being resin impregnated under pressure look and perform far better than the price suggests.

Next post: METHOD

[ZDP-189]

Design Stage


First I sketch the design of the knife. I was inspired by Trond's recent full-tang scandi, but chose a more conventional back portion for the handle. The unusual features of this hidden-tang knife are to be a tapered centre section and sculpting of the front of the handle with a slight overlap onto the blade. These features are more often seen on full-tang knives like Trond's masterpiece.

What'll It Look Like?


Putting things together like this allows me to check that the centre section is at least as thick as the blade and to consider the overall appearance. As you can see, I initially intended to use ivory paper micarta as the centre section. Jon Baron recommended a dark wood with red spacers. I eventually went with ebony sliced off a regular wood block using the bandsaw. I didn’t use spacers. Ideally, I’d have used very thin white spacers.

Cutting The Tang Slot


I scribed round the tang for precision then marked over that with tippex which shows up better. Note that I left plenty of spare to the fore, where I’d cut back to the critical points where the centre section meets the blade back.

Critical Points


These are the critical points. They are the only places where the fit must be exact. They must exactly contact the blade and the centre section must be exactly as thick as the blade too. In this case, I left it too thick and later sanded back to the blade thickness, checking frequently.

Gluing One Slab


Here I glued one slab first. Some people may like to complete the centre section and then stick the slabs on together, but this way, the slab supports the centre section during the heavy sanding phase.

Also, this shows my first two big mistakes:

(1) I should have used three clamps. I only used two and as a result, the top front of the centre section had just a tiny bit of gap filled with epoxy. That cost me a quarter of a mm that you can see if you inspect the completed knife closely.

(2) I should have only applied glue to the centre section, not the slab. This excess glue pooling in the slot would have led to a misalignment of the blade and I had to mill it out. If you don’t have a milling machine to hand, don’t make this mistake.

Tapering The Tang


Here I sanded back to taper the centre section to match the tang. If I was really tricky, I’d mill out the slabs and achieve a really pronounced taper. But this is meant to be a simple knife, so I settled with basic sanding and achieved a 50% taper comparing front vs. back. The difficulty in this stage is achieving a flat side, and not rounding slightly. There are lots of tricks that would work. I’ll leave it to one of you experts to tell me how you do it.

Checking Fit


Yup, the blade fits into the slot with none protruding.

Ready To Go


This is where I did a final check of the fit against the critical points.

Here I made my biggest error. I used fast (5 min epoxy) and didn't force-fit the tang back into the slot. Hence, there is a 0.5mm gap at the critical points... after all my careful measuring and cutting.

Cut to Shape


I stuck a photocopy of the design on the side and cut to shape, bringing the rough cut close to the line on the belt sander’s platen.

Getting the handle up to this point took 3 hours.

Top View


Not much to say, here.

Drilling Pin Holes


I found the cross vice very useful, but it isn’t really necessary. The real trick to note is that I clamped the knife in at a slight incline so that the blade was flat and the pins went through straight.

Fit Pins And Sand Flush


Actually, the pins are redundant. The epoxy is, IMO plenty strong enough, but, well they're cosmetic and at the same time functional. At leasy it didn't cost much in time and parts.

The best way is to force-fit the pins. Instead I very, very slightly over-drilled and bonded the pins in with epoxy. This is because it’s as strong and almost impossible to spot, but much easier, quicker and there’s less chance of damaging the slabs at this late stage of construction.

All that's left to do is sculpt the handle by eye, using the belt sander. Small radius inside curves were done with a 1 cm dia. sanding drum on the dremel. Once shaped with a 90 grit belt, I sanded down to 280 by hand, then hit it with the scotch-brite wheel and buffed with white compound on the rag wheel.

It's probably a bit controversial here, with many makers seeming to compete to claim the longest finishing process, but on most woods, the scotch-brite wheel and rag wheel will easily clean down to 280. The only disadvantage I can see is slight undercutting into epoxy and around pins. If done properly, you'd work up the grades with sandpaper stuck to a flat back-board.

Next: RESULTS

[ZDP-189]

Facing Side


Other Side


Top


Front


Back

[Mike Blue]

You couldn't have made that any simpler. Minimum tool set. Any body can make a knife with those instructions. Well done.

[Kevin]

Yes. Very well done..even I can follow it

[PB Knives]

And the end result... .
Completely my kind of handle!!

[Kevin]

What I like about this type of constuction is that the tang can be made to be a lot bigger and add more handle strength than a stick type tang (even larger than the example you used), and it is sealed well against humidity unlike traditional slab handled tangs....its a good compromise.

The handle construction shown is an alternative to a 'mortised' handle construction (two slab handles used)....where the outline of the tang is drawn onto both sides of the handle material and the outline is then 'mortised' (both sides) .....Glued together, the seam is almost invisible.

I dont know if Dans construction example has a name (its not 'mortised'), and 'hidden tang' can mean lots of methods......

.......maybe something like 'laminated hidden tang' would be a better description?..

Dan, you put a lot of work into presenting it...thanks.

[ZDP-189]

Thanks guys! And those comments were before I had even added the text describing my method.

I only hope that some of the forum readers who haven't attempted a laminated hidden tang knife will pick up the critical things to watch out for and also learn from my mistakes.

I agree with Kevin that it's not a morticed tang. I could do that with a router or the mill, and probably even save time and money, but then not many hobbiest makers would have the required kit.

This is a simple method with quick, easy gratification, suitable for beginners.

I'm still a beginner myself and as this is not for sale, please post all your frank comments and recommendations for improvement. Would you have added spacers? Made it a different way? Used a different shape of handle?

[Graham]

Very good work
Proves something does not have to be complicated to be effective.


Graham

[PS_Bond]

S'good stuff. I think I may have to pinch some ideas from there for the one I'm messing with at the moment...

[MotorbikeMan]

really nice knife, I think the only aesthetic change I might have made would have been a bit of a bevel down to the blade, but that's just me When you say the epoxy is strong enough without the pins, what epoxy are you using and what do other people think about this. I'm asking cos it would make the knife I'm about to make a lot easier as I have a nicely seasoned piece of holly that I'd love to use for the handle, but it's gonna be touch and go to get a push tang right first time as it's a bit on the small side, so this method with a spacer would be great. Also, my tools are a bit limited, so drilling through the tang would be somewhat of a problem.

[Basemetal]

Brilliant as usual Dan!
I'm not a huge fan of laminates and staminawoods but I see the logic when the false tang appears as another layer. White spacers would have been nice to see. You've got me thinking about layers and colours now...like ebony and ivory...thanks for the inspiration.
Good to know the bandsaw is getting used... :approve:
:bandit:

[Basemetal]

Would you consider that some tang patterns are better suited to this method than others? Trond's look ideal -thickish blade and stout tang; some of the Helles and Bruslettos have quite skinny tangs and sharp angles. What do you think?
:bandit:

[Tvividr]

Excellent Dan

[Trond]

Very good Dan, thanks for a great tutorial, you have explained the metod i used for your wootz knife