Evan, I find it easier to drill before as a flat surface with a good deep center punch indentation helps keep the drill bit on center, however I have done it both ways.

I am working on my first tapered tang now. I had no issues drilling after tapering, but I haven't put scales on it yet so we shall see.

Travis Wuertz has an interesting talk here... https://youtu.be/OQe4O7q5Xr4 though he is more comparing tapered tangs with beveled handles, if that makes any sense.

Travis is talking about the problems drilling straight holes through scales when you have a beveled tang. The concept applies no matter which way the tang is beveled (top to bottom or front to back)

Drilling the holes in the tang when the tang sides are flat and parallel is the easiest way to get the holes to be perpendicular to the centerline of the handle.

Bevel the tang after drilling and the holes are still going to be parallel to the centerline.

Drilling the holes in a beveled tang will result in angled holes, so they wont line up correctly. Travis is also discussing the problems with drilling the scale holes through a square profiled block and fitting them to the tapered tang. This causes you to bend the pins as you clamp the scales flat to the tang. This is not much of a problem, providing the bevel is not too harsh and the pins are not too fat. 1/6" or 3/32" pins will bend fairly easily. 1/8" and larger pins, can crack the scales rather than bend. Pins materials choices also make a difference. Always use annealed pin stock when using the bend-in method. I also find that the scales are very difficult to remove once the pins are bent into place, so gluing them becomes a challenge unless you glue them on when you bend them into place. Then you have to do all your shaping on the knife after the glue dries.

If you choose to forge the tang bevel in, you will have to create a beveled drilling block that matches the tang bevel fairly close in order to make the holes parallel to the centerline. I find this to be an awful lot of excess and unnecessary work, so I typically will grind the bevels in after HT. The other choice is to over-size the holes in the tang and drill the scales together. This will make the scales line up and you can shape the scales off the knife pinned to each other. When you go for the glue-up, the front edges of the scales will always match across the knife. You just have a difficult time getting the exactly perfect placement before you clamp everything together. Then you can do some minor edge trimming with everything on the knife.

I have a surface grinder. I can make the tang flat and the sides parallel and drill the holes. Then I can bevel the tang and surface the scales to be flat and parallel sided. Then I bevel one face of each scale to match the tang bevel. Place the scales on the side of the knife (flip so the fat end of the scale is at the thin end of the tang) and drill the scales. Everything goes together easily. The pins don't bend and the scales can be shaped or removed and replaced as needed.

I drill my holes first one size up. On my kitchen knives I usually bevel my tangs and sometimes taper tangs on other knives. My surface grinder isn't as fancy as Joshua's <img src=' http://www.americanbladesmith.com/ipboard/public/style_emoticons//smile.gi f' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':)' /> (stone wheel) so when it's time to drill scales I use this jig I can't remember were I saw it Joe Keeslar maybe? somewhere one the web. I have liner material glued together in different thicknesses to level the blade and the bolts support the scales also spring clamped Popsicle sticks so I don't blow out the back of the scale.

Gilbert

Thanks Guys- all great suggestions.

Interesting to read this - I often think there must be a better way to do this when drilling tapered tangs but I use whatever shim I need to make the center line level while drilling. I've found that many folks here have advanced machining skills and I imagine there's a good, solid, repeatable approach I'm unaware of. Coming from a simple shop set up, with an average bench top drill press, my biggest concern is square alignment of scales and that seems to be very controllable (at least with thin kitchen knife tangs) by using a slightly larger than pin-size drill bit, taking care taken when drilling scales (preparing them to sit square when mounted on the tapered tang), and shimming the tang while drilling. Keep the replies coming.

Gilbert, Evan etc.

Great topic, great questions. Ideally you want your tang holes perpendicular to the imaginary centerline of the blade. So what part of the knife can you set up that is Parallel to that centerline? Well the Ricasso should be so either clamp or set the Ricasso on the drill press table and use a tapered shim slid under the tang for support. This procedure requires that your drill press table is perpendicular to the drill axis. You can check that with a dial indicator in the drill chuck or a bent pointed rod ( 2- 90 deg. bends) set in the chuck and turned at 90 deg. intervals, side to side and front to back. Hope this helps.