Hidden tang thang

Jon Buescher

Jon Buescher

Well-Known Member
So I screwed up on a hidden tang whilst shaping the tang, I cut the sucker off and welded one on made from the same chunk of steel. Is this a no no?
 

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With a proper weld there should be no problem what so ever. While some purist who aren't that familiar with strength of a good weld might object.
 
Lot's has to go on, to make it work...... first, if you welded it with a common welding rod or wire, it's not a matter of IF it will fail, it's WHEN. That just the hard fact that has proven itself time and time again over my career. I've had folks over and over go against my advice not to do that.....then, later down the road, regretted it because the knife broke on a customer/client....and once you soil your reputation like that, it's difficult to recover from it.
Why doesn't typical welding work on knife type steels? Mainly because you now have two, very dissimilar materials..... the file (or whatever knife steel you're using), and the welding rod/wire in the same place....and the "heat treatment" that works for one, wrecks the other, and vise-versa.

The ONLY way I have ever seen it work/hold for the long term is to TIG weld, with no filler, then thermal cycle, anneal, then go through things as would normally be done. Even then, it's common to be able to see the weld area, and the failure rate is usually around 40-50%.
 
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If it’s for you, finish that sucker out and enjoy it . If it was to sell, I would just keep it. My main concern is where the weld is, it would worry me.
 
EdCaffreyMS said:
Lot's has to go on, to make it work...... first, if you welded it with a common welding rod or wire, it's not a matter of IF it will fail, it's WHEN. That just the hard fact that has proven itself time and time again over my career. I've had folks over and over go against my advice not to do that.....then, later down the road, regretted it because the knife broke on a customer/client....and once you soil your reputation like that, it's difficult to recover from it.
Why doesn't typical welding work on knife type steels? Mainly because you now have two, very dissimilar materials..... the file (or whatever knife steel you're using), and the welding rod/wire in the same place....and the "heat treatment" that works for one, wrecks the other, and vise-versa.

The ONLY way I have ever seen it work/hold for the long term is to TIG weld, with no filler, then thermal cycle, anneal, then go through things as would normally be done. Even then, it's common to be able to see the weld area, and the failure rate is usually around 40-50%.
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That's what I was afraid of and the reason I took the time to ask. I will scrap it and start over, or at least turn it into a smaller, full tang knife
 
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