Ideas for half-tang scales ?????

KentuckyFisherman

Well-Known Member
For about 4 years I've been shaping and finishing exotic scales and putting them on purchased blanks. About a year into that I added leatherworking because I couldn't find sheaths that suited me for the knives I was finishing. Now I've run into something that I just haven't seen before, called a half-tang knife. The blade on the blank below is 7" and the tang is 2 1/2". I'm interested in building with this blank, but I'm at a loss as to how I'd build the handle. Obviously the handle will need to be longer than 2 1/2", so do I take a solid block and cut a slot for this half-tang or what? I'm thinking there are likely several approaches, but I'm pretty clueless. Can you guys help? Here's a link if you want to see the blank online. Thanks for your help.
Half tang.JPG
 
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You could cut a slot in a block or you could make a laminate with the center section the thickness of the tang. It can be the same material or you can perhaps find a perfect match thickness-wise with some type of spacer/liner material from G-10 or Micarta, etc.
 
We were gifted a sandwich spreader from my in-laws that was constructed just like fitzo described. Puppy got ahold of it and chewed up the wooden handle, so I re-handled it in black G10 with 0.060" (I think) toxic green G10 liner material sandwiched (no pun intended, but hey...) bewtween that was the same thickness as the blade. New SS pins replaced the brass ones and now it's better than original. I didn't take any stills, but here's a video I sent my wife after it was done to prove to her that I actually will get around to her honey-do list items. Eventually.


It kinda shows the profile, but I think it's pretty simple to figure out.
 
You can cut a slot but you have to be pretty accurate. However, you can have two sides, and simply cut half a slot in each side. So if your blank is 1/8" you would cut half slot 1/16 in each side
second.png
 
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