Tapered tangs

[fischerknives]

Diamond G,
Tapering tangs gets easier after you do a few, like everything else. I don't think that I have ever made a full tang knife that wasn't tapered. Somebody above said that it doesn't add to the feel of a hunter. Nothing could be further from the truth, which if you skin or bone out a lot of deer you'll know. As Steve stated, a well balanced knife really does feel "alive" in your hand and is a pleasure to use, especially if you're going to be cutting for a half hour on a deer or larger animal.

Something that might help you in tapering is to mark with a height gage or similar tool how thick you want your tang to be at the back. Let's say you start with a 3/16" blade, you might want your tang to taper down to 3/32" at the back. Mark on both sides of the tang a line about 46 thousandths leaving
93 thousandths between the lines in the middle of your blade. Use this as a guide to keep your grinding even on both sides. I use a grinding magnet and a platen, although as described above a few passes on a contact wheel will get you a good start. Removing metal on a platen in this way will really tax your grinder and go through some belts. I also drill a few 1/4" holes in the tang in strategic places and this seems to make the platen grinding go much better. Try to stop your grinding with the coarse grit belt just behind where the front of the bolster will be and switch over to a finer grit belt so you don't put deep scratches in the flats of your blade. You should take the taper out in front of the bolsters and this can be as far as you want. I know a guy who tapers all the way to the front of the flats, from the back. You can blend in the taper to the flats on a smooth contact wheel holding the knife vertically, using a fine grit belt. A while back, I went to completely finishing the flats and tapering the tang before I grind the bevels, either flat or hollow. Less chance of messing up your hollow grind.
Good luck.

[hammerdownnow]

Diamond G, in your case just take a hammer and beat your taper in close, it is fun, try it.. Or you could just make a set of swages for the press and do it the easy way...haha. See ya soon.

[Steve]

Here, finally, is that thread on this forum, that I mentioned above:

http://www.knifenetwork.com/forum/showthread.php?t=3480

Hope it helps a little. Lots of different ways of doing the same thing.

[GHEzell]

Originally Posted by TAH

On average, how much extra time and expense is added to a knife with a tapered tang?

Also, was Loveless the first knifemaker to taper tangs?

I think it is a whole lot easier to forge it in than to grind it in. When forging it might add 30 minutes or so to the amount of time spent making the blade, depending on your forging and grinding skill. For stock removal, Mr. Barr is quite correct.

I've never seen a Scagel full-tang knife that didn't have a tapered tang (I'm no expert, though). A friend of mine owns a kukri that is quite old, and it has a very noticable taper to the tang.

[Jason Cutter]

The tapered tang seems to largely be a marker of "custom" or "hand-fitted" on a knife. Very few if any factory made knives have tapered tangs. I find it actually easier to engineer the balance and weight of my knives with tapering the tang rather than drilling holes, but maybe thats just me. Besides, I just like the look of a tapered tang. The step that REALLY removes material is when you hollowgrind the tang before grinding it flat. Removing all that steel from the buttend, takes the balance up to the guard / blade.

On my forged blades, I automatically taper the tangs anyhow when I forge out the flare towards the buttend. So somehow or other, the tangs end up tapered.

Melbourne Knifemaker Peter DelRaso once told me, "Taper the tang on every knife you make." I listened and did it and can thank him heartilly. Every knife than has a standard level of that "custom" and "handfitted" look and feel. The only choice that remains for me, is how MUCH to taper the tang. I like to taper my tangs quite thin for a dramatic look. Where I think that strength might be a posible issue, I just leave the taper a bit thicker. But mostly, I like to get the buttend down to just under 1/16th inch thick.

At the same time, a knife with a straight tang could be just as functional and as well balanced. There are many ways to skin a cat, or to balance a knife.

Sometimes, "degree of difficulty" in a hand-crafted knife is appreciated by a customer / collector, and they are willing to pay extra for the privilege.

Just my 2 cents worth. Jason.