Tang Photo
- Thread starter DPris
- Start date
I have a request of you, as i do not play here enough ( or maybe pay here enough) to be able to save the tang photos for reference.
Am buying a gift khukuri for a friend who is a true weapon and knife expert but who has never owned a true khukuri and who in normal course of things has seen only what was clearly junk...
He will be quite technically curious as to what is what and especially as to hidden things such as tang.....he will find it as "no possible worry at all as to breakage" after seeing the photos of that massive tang, and as anyone else should be.
We both have much experience with natural handle materials such as leather, ivory, stag, bone, etc and understand in general that cracking and repairing of such is almost inevitable if used hard, and more critical aspects such as what could be terminal problems in broken tangs are what keeps the interest alive.
SO...could these be posted through a host where i am not denied permission to copy to my computer? Every time i try to download i get a log-in screen instead of photos and i would dearly love to pass them along.....or a link to the HI site page where maybe those photos are hiding....
Many thanks for reading a windbag request....
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- Mar 28, 2013
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I gotcha covered, uploading them now.
Right click the image and hit save to desktop.
Right click the image and hit save to desktop.
Are you talking the brand or the type?.....i never baton as there are better tools for such and if not, then where do all these cut pieces of wood come from i see on near EVERY knife review posted on you-tube, as if the forest floor is littered with cut rounds waiting for Mr Baton Man to arrive? (Wink!)....
Seriously, my first failure was with an issue knife circa 73 which was used for EVERYthing and thrown massively with many poor flat strikes against telephone wire poles until one day it broke in same place most every hidden tang breaks, where knife tries to bend backwards around the hand when chopping...
The pieces showed a draw down of hardness from blade and simply needed to be drawn down softer further forward as is the M7 back to trench knife grandad but then everybody would be bending them.....and the leather offers no support unlike harder handle materials such as micarta....i doubt one would ever break if it had a micarta handle surrounding the tang and minimizing flex.....the flex also shows in ruptured and/or missing leather washers often in same place on tired old ones.....have had ones pretty much by everybody and the current Ontario version is identical to twinness to the first one i broke.....the trench knife and bayonet are held much softer (and thicker) and you will bend them but rarely break....stores always had bent ones awaiting straightening and scales and were then reissued with no problems....
I gotcha covered, uploading them now.
Right click the image and hit save to desktop.
Many many many thanks!!!!......those photos tell it all.....WHAT a tang.....i look at the ricasso on my WWII and think of what is in that handle and just smile and smile and smile....as tough as what shows and that is TOUGH....
Edit in WHOOOPS....any chance of the WWII tang under destruction in referenced post?....
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Gotcha covered!
Gotcha covered!
WHAHOOO!!!!!....Holy Moly, look at the size of that thing, Ethel!!!!
Thank you kindly sir.....saved on three machines/backups now....
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Considering that the tangs appear to be the thickness of the blade, full length, and fairly wide, one can see how they can be seen as fairly strong!
The area that really matters is that first inch or so where, during a chop, the leading edge of hand tries to drive through tang....the longer/full length tang is as much about saving short tang end beating out inside of handle along with providing extra retention at far end, as anything else...note the pictured tang tapers not only in depth but does a distal/thickness taper to end.....i like the stress reducing radii in corners of photographed tang....good man....they probably would look square in a generic wider view xray but they are not....
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A key to these tangs is being dead soft. A key to khukuri use is technique. It takes a while to get, but works so well with the design. It involves a loose grip where the shoulder starts the chop, the elbow then continues it, and the final blow is sped up by a flick of the wrist. If done right, the hand is not putting any force on the handle or blade at contact with wood. The user just builds the momentum and the blade's speed/mass does the dirty work. It doesn't stress anything except maybe the edge as it's essentially thrown into the cutting medium with the user only controlling direction at the time of contact. I hope I explained that technique right. I'm sure someone else can do a better job, but the technique works very well and doesn't tire you out. We've all tried to force the khuk into wood, like what you're describing as putting incredible force on the handle near the bolster. With different technique, that's not an issue.
I'm not questioning your technique or skill at all, just pointing out that many here use the flick technique and it negates a lot of the handle stressing force you mentioned above.
I'm not questioning your technique or skill at all, just pointing out that many here use the flick technique and it negates a lot of the handle stressing force you mentioned above.
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Good explanation jdk1:thumbup: I think of it like like cracking a whip. Little stress is involved in the whip but the tip is breaking the sound barrier with a crack. As jdk described from the shoulder to the elbow to the wrist and even down to the tip of the knife. Think of the hand to knife joint just the same as elbow or shoulder joint. The khuk is just an extension of your arm. You want minimal stress in all these joints. The end of the line where all the stress is translated is where the edge is hardened. If you get good at this method very little motion is actually needed in the shoulder and elbow joints. You can take some pretty big chunks with elbow and wrist alone without even involving the shoulder.
It was explained just fine......let the blade do the work.....even at 1/2 hard or 1/4 hard, the 5160ish spring steel is tough and resilient....with its alloys, it never is one to be bent easily....and at the illustrated thickness, vandalism more than actual hard use would be cause of most damage...the handle also butts against back of ricasso and seeks to transfer shock to blade shoulder...
And was not advocating a technique but only pointing out the mechanical stresses put on the tang whether in larger or greater measure mitigated by technique or not...
And was not advocating a technique but only pointing out the mechanical stresses put on the tang whether in larger or greater measure mitigated by technique or not...
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