Zack,

A hidden or stick tang handled knife might be construed as inferior to a full tang by some folks. I believe this stems from the fact that so many choose to forge and grind their tangs down literally to a stick, to go through a round drilled hole. It just looks weak and in some cases is weak in comparison to a properly built test knife.

A maker who aspires to become a Mastersmith with the ABS should dig a little deeper into the mechanics of construction and using principles he's learned and discerned, should be able build a hidden tang knife that will perform this task.

When you are flexing the blade, it can put torque and internal pressures into the handle that can cause it to fail in a number of ways. It will manifest itself with popped handle material, gaps, etc. It's up to the maker to figure out how these pressures are being directed and to counter those with his taper, fit, method of construction, and integrity of the materials chosen.

Other than a few scuffs, the handle material should look just like it did before the test. All of the flexing/bending should take place in front of the guard/ricasso area.

This has been a great area of concern to me for some time. When I see a test knife do most of the bending at the ricasso area or on the tang during the test that I am not overseeing, I want to cry “foul”. The ricasso or tang does not have to do any cutting or possess strength for the other parts of the test, thus anybody can make a knife bend there by simply not heat treating it; this does not fit the ideas of the performance test.

When I administer the test, I eliminate this problem by informing the applicant, before the test, that I will be counting only the blade portion in front of the ricasso in the bend, and will expect the ricasso area, not any part of the handle, to reach 90 degrees. Thus, I do not pay any attention to the handle but look at the blade-ricasso junction in judging when 90 degrees have been reached. This also gets rid of the problem of the cheater bar obscuring my view, it can get in the way of the handle all it wants, I don’t care.

Lin is very correct in pointing out the problem of a stick tang, or what we have called in the sword business the “rat tail”; in which case it is a clear sign of a cheap, third-world knock off sword blade. It is because of the problem of the rat tail that I do not allow my students to use a fuller type tool to forge in a drastic step down to the tang, it is too easy to overdo it. I don’t even call this tang style a “stick tang”, as it could reinforce the concept of the dreaded rat tail, but prefer to call this style “hidden tang”. There are indeed examples of knives from the 19th century that had rat tails, but just because a blade is old doesn’t mean it can’t be inferior, there were all degrees of skill and understanding back then as well, as well as cheaper knock-offs. Much older blades, from when blades were primary weapons, rarely, if ever incorporate such a design flaw, but instead relied on the strength of proper tapers and gradual transitions.

From studying these much older blades what I use is a two step approach to the hidden tang, I only step down perhaps 1/8 inch for my guard shoulders and then step down again behind the guard and spacers to accommodate the handle material, and then taper to the end of the tang. Also, all “steps” incorporate a radius and are not cut with square files. Since I take all of my Rockwell readings where the guard will go, I also heat treat at least the first 1/3 of the tang. I can draw these areas back to any hardness I want later but these critical points deserve the benefits of the heat treatment as well.

So, I personally like that idea of the knife failing if the tang bends over, although I doubt this has often been enforced. But I would like to see even more clarification on a few particulars of the test, this just being one of them.

Alright gents, thanks for the input!

I want to reiterate what Kevin said, as the Master Smith administering the performance test. I too watch for the ricasso to reach 90 degrees. Additionally, and what I think Kevin alluded to, is that I do not want to see the blade bend at the plunge lines. A blade that was heat treated short of the ricasso, or the edge was hardened very low near the plunge lines, can bend at the plunge lines. There should be a smooth and continuous arch, along the length of the blade and through the ricasso. The blade should not kink at the material mass transition at the plunge lines.

The ability of a blade to make a smooth and continuous bend, is a function of both heat treatment and distal taper. Make sure that you have tested your process adequately, to ensure that your blade will make a smooth bend. Kevin is not the only Master Smith who will be watching your blade and not your handle.