Hidden Tang Bowie questions?

theWeatherman

Well-Known Member
I have decided that I wanted to try a hidden tang bowie knife. However, I am starting to realize some potential design flaws and I was hoping someone had some answers.

When you have the stick tang connect to the guard I have square angles, leading to a totally square stick tang. When I can find a tutorial or shots of work being done on hidden tang knives I really don't' see square tangs. Reason not to have totally square flat stick tang?

I also am wondering about the guard and spacer material. Some of them are nickel silver or a stainless material that don't need to be HT'ed but do the guards and spacers that are steel or damascus get HT'ed?

Thanks
 
I have make "square" tangs. Ones that have pretty much parallel sides down their length. The tapered ones will put the most metal where it is needed most, at the shoulders where the blade and tang meet. Do not, however, make sharp inside angles where the two come together. That will cause a stress raiser that could cause failure there under stress. Always round the junction with a file. The more curvature the better stress will be distributed across the curve. The slot in the guard needs to be milled or filed to fit over this curve but it doesn't have to fit exactly to it. Just relieve the corners.

Spacers and guards are applied after the blade is heat treated and are epoxied, soldiered, pinned in place. Sometimes they are held on by pressure with a screw on pommel nut over a butt plate or the end of the tang being peened over it.

Doug
 
There are tutorials on this site and others that have good illustrations. Boss Dog also has some tutorials on his store site, www.usaknifemaker.com. I just don't have any process pictures in my photo library to show you. A good book to get is The Master Bladesmith by Jim Hrisoulas. It's a good reference to have on hands on forging blades and it also deals with the subjects involved in finishing a knife.

Doug

P.S. I just went down to Tutorials of All Kinds below in The Knife Makers Area and there is a tutorial on the stick tang. One of the first pictures shows how the inside corners are rounded at the junction of the tang and the shoulders of the blade.
 
Last edited:
A tang that is rectangular in cross-section is a whole lot easier to make a guard for. If the tang tapers so it is not rectangular (tapers from spine to edge) then the guard is harder to fit properly.

Here is a lesson I learned from Jerry Rados: work carefully to fit the guard as closely as possible. Drill holes with a drill bit that is smaller than the smallest portion of the tang where the guard will sit. File a slot between the holes. Carefully work the guard up the tang, filing only where needed. You may want to put ink on the tang to see where the guard is dragging. Use a hammer and something to drive the guard the last centimeter. Now, this will be tight, but not perfect. There will be some gaps. Get a ball peen hammer, mark the face of the guard were the gaps are, and tap around them with the ball peen until the guard swells in those spots enough to close the gaps. Then, file if needed to get back to where you can press fit. Once this is done, take draw file or disk sander or belt sander with platen or a block of granite or glass or flat steel with sand paper and flatten the face of the guard again. There, you now have a perfect fit between guard and tang.

This takes HOURS most times. Just accept that you will spend a day fitting the guard. Otherwise, learn to make good blade collars (habaki or tonkou).

have fun,
kc
 
Kevin, how do you make a rectangular cross-section but still not have the sharp angles so that you don't have stress? Or am I over thinking this?
 
You're over thinking this. The angles that will give you problems are inside angles. Like where the tang and the shoulder of the blade meet. Those you have to round out with a round file or a very small grinding wheel. You will then have to bevel the ends of the slot that you will cut in the guard so that it will slip onto the tang all the way up to the shoulder of the blade and fit flush to the blade Sharp outside angles, like on the edges of the tang, are not a problem.

Doug
 
Thanks Doug,

Now that I have had time to think about it more and really look at the tutorials that I could find, I was hoping you guys could tell me about the different types of tool that could be used to hollow out the drilled holes in the handle block?

I am looking for ideas so I can buy what would work best for me.

Bruce Bump did have some kind of reamer for his hidden tang knives that I think would work the best but I am unsure how to make one or get one.
 
Tools that I've use for making the hole for the stick tang have started out with drill bits just slightly smaller than the tang. I marked out where the tang would go on the end of the block and drilled just inside the lines. I then cleaned out the web between with various other bits designed to ream away things like wood, pin files, and the carbide blades from ceramic coping saws. One of the guys on another board came up with another way. That's to drill one hole that is just a little larger in diameter than the widest part of the tang. He then fills the hole with an epoxy putty, I found some at Lowes. He then coats the tang with petroleum jelly and inserts the tang into the putty in the hole and seats the blade on the handle block. He then removes the blade and allows the epoxy putty to set leaving a perfect hole to set the tang into.

Doug
 
Back
Top