Hello James

There are no stipulations on hidden or full tang for the judging knives, but I would go with whatever you are best at. Now, it is a pass/fail thing and there technically is no "extra credit", but the judges are only human and at Journeyman level things are not so cut and dried so they have the latitude to cut you some slack based on their impressions of your work. That being said, if you can do both hidden and full tang equally well, it always makes a positive impression to show that your skills are diverse in the knives that you present.

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I have read the Journeyman Smith Application and it doesn't outline what is needed. Just that the test knife has to be Full Tang.

I do not think you will find that a full tang is required. There should be no stipulations on the tang at the JS level.

Only on the MS test knife is there a tang stipulation.

Hello James and good question. Looking at the pictures of JS submission knives, I only see one full tang. Most do hidden tang knives for the submission knives. All knives presented must have guards or bolsters, except for the JS performance test knife. Having judged at both levels I would say not more than one full tang knife which must have a guard or bolster. I will see if I can get Mike Williams the head JS judge to chime in on this.

Brion

James; I think a full tang knife; done well; would be fine.

I would want a full tang knife to have a nice taper on the tang; also as the other guys stated, it must have a guard or bolster.

More than one would not be your best bet in my view.

We see very few full tangs submitted by applicants, any particular reason why you wish to?

Also; your performance knife can be either a full or narrow tang.

mike

I can easily see why a JS applicant would include a full tang knife in their set. For a lot of smiths, it's the first style they learn how to make and the one they make most often, so it would be something they are competent at and confident in their ability to do well. A full tang knife with bolsters is also a very popular seller to the outdoors/survivalist/tactical markets right now. Quite frankly, getting the bolsters lined up and symmetrical is not all that easy........

For whatever my opinion might be worth,

I would think that a nicely made full tang knife should be perfectly acceptable in the JS set. It would show that diversity Kevin mentioned. But a set of 5 full tang knives? That would show the opposite of diversity. That would show a very limited skill level. Not exactly what I would want to bring to my JS test (if I ever get around to it!)