Fallkniven volcano tang!!! Weak?

I'd like to see what's underneath. Strip down to blade and tang without bolster to see the basic construction. You should be able to remove the bolster with heat as high as about 400 F safely. Then you can get a good look.
If there is flex at the blade/tang area when that knife is batoned the stress will be taken up by the wood ! The weakest part !
 
I'll try and work on it tomorrow, see if I can take off the guard. I was thinking of using some thin sheets of chromoly steel, and job welding it to the rest of the tang to get some reinforcement. Not to sure yet. I did try flexing the stick tang by hand, and it didn't really budge.
 
Natlek said:
7mm steel can not break green Hulk and they make handle like this ? No excuse :thumbdn: Now I m lucky that I have not bought a Fällkniven F1 ...and I wanted to buy it ! No pass in my book .......I'm curious , did the hole in the wood was round or square to fit nice on tang ?
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I think it was like an oval shape, to avoid twisting. On the butt cap there is another pin to aid in the handle not twisting.
 
I don't think this take-down (handle) tang is weak - assuming blade and tang junction has decent radius (not a sharp 90 degrees, hence stress riser). Large vibration & torque load was on the handle = lead to = cocobolo wood cracked. A high shock absorption material would be for a handle in batoning uses. Micarta is much better than cocobolo (and other hard mostly straight grain wood), g10, etc... However when Micarta and other resin-based material will become harder and brittle in sub-freezing temperature. If/for my use/make to support batoning - I would use Natural Camphor Burl for a handle - interlocked grain + light + super-high-shock-absorp.
 
Thanks bluntcut. What would you recommend for epoxy, attaching a g10 handle. I did order gflex epoxy, and I have jbweld. Thanks
 
+ gflex :thumbup:
- g10 : too hard (carbon fiber would be terrible). Micarta is better than g10 in situations high vibration+torqe&sheer. If insist on g10, I recommend flare the tang hole as much as possible w/o show through (boo boo) when reach final shape. 1-to-1 mix gflex with softwood sawdust (e.g. very dried sapwood fir, pine). Basically create a dampening layer between tang and handle and eventually your hand.

rodriguez7 said:
Thanks bluntcut. What would you recommend for epoxy, attaching a g10 handle. I did order gflex epoxy, and I have jbweld. Thanks
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The only reason I'm going with g10 is because I couldn't find a solid block of micarta, which I would have preferred. Thanks for the reply. I'll probably start working on it tomorrow.
 
I checked them before, couldn't find any in stock. Right now they have 2 different ones, paper micarta. Thanks. I have a block of earth brown g10 that came in today. 5"x2"X1.5"
 
rodriguez7 said:
I did not Mikael. I figured I would take care of it myself. Kind of a hassle to send it back to Sweden.
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Yes, I would have done the same myself, even though I am in Sweden!
I would have chosen a nice piece of Sambar stag. but that's just me.

I think Bluntcut has given some insightful advices and I support them holehartedly!



Regards
Mikael
 
Mikael W said:
Yes, I would have done the same myself, even though I am in Sweden!
I would have chosen a nice piece of Sambar stag. but that's just me.

I think Bluntcut has some insightful advices and I support them holehartedly!



Regards
Mikael
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I like synthetic materials only for the durability and all weather uses. This will be my first attempt at this, so hopefully I don't screw it up to badly. Thanks
 
rodriguez7 said:
I like synthetic materials only for the durability and all weather uses. This will be my first attempt at this, so hopefully I don't screw it up to badly. Thanks
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rodriguez7

Yup, I am. But I'll try and make a solid handle out of g10. I'm thinking this knife will hold up regardless, as long as I don't put it through what I put my busses through. I'll be avoiding heavy battoning with this knife from now on. But for such a big thick blade, I figured it would have a much heavier duty tang.
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Some thoughts after rereading this thread.

The Volcano tang sure looks very narrow to the blade, but:

If the spacers, guard, pommel and the new G10 handle are tightly aligned and secured with the pommelnut, I think You will be able to continue to do heavy batoning and chopping.
That is of course if You follow Bluntcuts advice about using a large hole filled with epoxy + filler.
Sawdust will work, but personally I prefer cottonflock or microballons and that will also work.( I took a 40 hours evening classes in 1984, on W.E.S.T. epoxy techniques.)

I have a few Bark Rivers with narrow tangs on heavy blades (just like the Volcano) and they certainly cope with very hard batoning.
The tricks I use is not to put pressure on the handle and I keep the blade leveled at 90 degrees to the wood beeing splitted.
The handle should never be allowed to act as a fulcrum.
If the wood refuses to split, I change from the knife to wooden wedges not to risk the knife.

The positive thing with this failure, is that it was the woodhandle that broke and not the tang.
A broken handle is fairly easy to replace, but not a broken tang.
I also like Your attitude to fix the problem by Yourself.
That's what I think any genuine Outdoorsman would do! :thumbup:


Regards
Mikael
 
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Thanks for all the help, I'll let you know how it turns out!
 
bluntcut said:
I don't think this take-down (handle) tang is weak - assuming blade and tang junction has decent radius (not a sharp 90 degrees, hence stress riser). Large vibration & torque load was on the handle = lead to = cocobolo wood cracked. A high shock absorption material would be for a handle in batoning uses. Micarta is much better than cocobolo (and other hard mostly straight grain wood), g10, etc... However when Micarta and other resin-based material will become harder and brittle in sub-freezing temperature. If/for my use/make to support batoning - I would use Natural Camphor Burl for a handle - interlocked grain + light + super-high-shock-absorp.
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I do not agree with that .It does not matter whether or not the tang has decent radius or not in this case, tang not break , wood is cracked .This tang is shape for making an easy to put handle , nothing more .And that's why I will not buy Fallkniven knife :thumbdn: That's way this tang is weak ! They wanted with little work to put handle on 500 $ knive ??? Probably they don t expect that someone will batonning with this knive :) They drill a hole in wood and little work on the end to square wood on the opening .... Look closely at the picture, tang is almost all length round, square is just a small part? Only that small square part of tang and glue prevent the wood to turn / spin on tang ..... And exactly this is happened .... The handle spin little on tang when he batonning and that small portion square part on tang easily splitted wood . Even that black thin part was break , how ??

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Like :) But , what happened with the rear end of the handle , lack of material to shape properly or ?
 
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