Recommendation? How should I fix a tang that's too thin?

G

GoodRavensForge

Joined
Oct 5, 2021
Messages
3
So, I was trying out a new knife design and I got a little overzealous on getting the tang centered and the step from blade to tang squared off, and I wound up forging my tang too thin. I intended to make this a peened rat-tail tang; I'm going for a Puukko-esque type knife. I don't intend for this knife to be perfect, but I'm concerned that the weak point of the tang may fail, and I'm trying to figure out a) If it's not terribly thin and *should* be ok, or b) how I can fix it. I have access to both propane and charcoal forges, a flux core (gasless) mig welder, a stick welder, and a variety of other tools. The piece is made entirely out of 80crv2, and I was thinking/wondering about welding on either another piece of 80crv2 or of mild steel to make a new tang. I'm open to suggestions/opinions on both how to mitigate this problem (and if I'm honest, any tips on forging in the tang to help prevent me from making similar mistakes in the future).

Bw6W849.jpg
j0vJAQI.jpg
wvtQrCM.jpg
 
Only thing worth to do on that blade is to shorten little blade ..........Something like this would work .
rMfUuPx.jpg
 
Also for forging in the tang just forge a rough taper and grind in the shoulders, even filing doesn’t take long to create clean shoulders.
 
Joshua Fisher said:
In my opinion the tang is both too thin and narrow, I’d just start over and chalk this one up as a learning experience:
Click to expand...
Why you think that ? He has thick part in front of tang , in blade ? If he grind new tang as on picture , that knife will pass same test with any other knife build in right way .15mm solid steel inside wood is more then enough if you ask me .........what difference would make if you have thick steel behind that blue part on picture , what is the benefit of that steel deep inside handle ?

H9AcIOW.jpg
 
Natlek said:
Why you think that ? He has thick part in front of tang , in blade ? If he grind new tang as on picture , that knife will pass same test with any other knife build in right way .15mm solid steel inside wood is more then enough if you ask me .........what difference would make if you have thick steel behind that blue part on picture , what is the benefit of that steel deep inside handle ?

H9AcIOW.jpg
Click to expand...
To me that narrow section about an inch back from the shoulders looks too narrow, but that’s just my opinion, I also tend to not like rat tail tangs in general so I may be biased.
 
It's not worth the risk and effort to try and save it in my opinion.
Personally, I would hang the blade somewhere I can see it and remind myself of what I did wrong.

Mistakes such as this are simply part of the process (you should see my box of shame).
 
Just flick your grinder into reverse and grind some more on!

But seriously if your not confident bin it and make it a shop knife or better yet test it to failier to see exclty how strong a wee tang like that is. I'm guessing it would be stronger than you might think, but thats purely a guess. Would be interesting to find out
 
So this is that knife .If we put it in vise and we bend it , what and where will give first ? Just don t tell me that thin tang will fall first in the middle of handle !

1aQ9lR1.png
 
if it were me, I'd scrap it and start over
 
Thanks to everyone for the suggestions, I appreciate them. I'm still not sure what I'm going to do, but given that the main suggestion is "Bin it", I may try Natlek's suggestion and see where it takes me. I can't get any worse than scrapping it, so the only thing I'm wasting by trying to fix it is time, and as this is a hobby and not a livelihood, it's relatively low risk.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top