Ed,

My advice is to stop the taper at the back of the guard/bolster. This would especially be important in the case of a notched guard. You know, the one that slides up under the blade and pins to it. There no point in making this notch any more difficult by having to fit it onto a taper.

Lin,

Thanks...I was hoping you'd say that <img src=' http://www.americanbladesmith.com/ipboard/public/style_emoticons//wink.gi f' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=';)' /> . And thanks for the example pic. Do you have any tricks on matching up the handle slabs to the angle created by the tapered tang and the guard? Same question for dove tailed bolsters and a tapered tang?

Ed C.

There's no tricks. But I do recommend establishing the front angle or angles first while it is in oversized slab form and not do any profiling till after that.

Here's my approach:

Before you begin your tapering operation, make sure the butt is totally centered (in line with the ricasso and tip).

0) Finish your tang down to its final profile, and drill all of your pin-holes before you taper the tang. Make sure the drill comes straight down through the tang, not at any angles. (This is why it is easier to do it now, before you taper).

1) Scribe a center line on the butt of the tang, using a center scribe, calipers, whatever. Decide how thick you want your tang to be at the butt, do the math, and scribe lines to either side of your center-line. Those are going to be your target lines.

2) Use a wheel to hog out a rough hollow grind on both sides of your tang. You want the bottom of your troughs to just touch the target lines you scribed. It doesn't much matter how far up (toward the ricasso) you grind, but the more material you remove, the easier you make the flat grinding in the next step. NOTE: stay clear of the profile of your tang. If you nick it, it might not be problematic, but it's best not to mess.

3) Lay your tang on the flat platen. Hit it at the angle you think will match up to the final angle on your tang. NOTE: for a knife with bolsters, I like to taper the tang from the butt, right on up to the plunge cuts. This gives you the simplest possible geometry to lay on dovetailed bolsters, and I don't see any down side. So the angle you are grinding now should follow a straight line on each side of your tang from the target lines to the plunges. The troughs you ground in step 2 will mean that you've got less surface area against the platen in step 3--which will make it faster, cooler, and easier to control.

4) Once you've heat treated the blade, you're going to need to make sure your tang is perfectly flat so that you don't have any gaps between it and your handle materials. If you don't have a surface grinder, you can do this with a surface plate and some sand paper, assuming your grinds did not result in any faceting on the tang. Use contact cement to glue some 220 onto your surface plate. (If you don't have a surface plate, you can use a large marble (synthetic) tile from Home Depot or Lowes. Lay your tang on there and rub away until all of your scratches are on the same level.

5) Drilling your scales can get a little tricky. Basically what you need to do is angle the OUTSIDE of your scale material opposite to the angle of the tang on each side. In other words, the fat end of your scale should be underneath the thin end of your tang, which means that the center-line will be exactly perpendicular to the drill bit. If you don't do this your holes will not line up from one scale to the other.

So I hope that's informative. I wrote it on the fly and I don't have time to proofread, so...sorry if there are any errors!

-Zack

Zack, your answer is very helpful. I had hard time trying to do my first full tang (my 3rd knife) just because i choose the wrong path.

My grinding skills are pretty good for a novice, but the wrong choices choosing the next step makes the life so much difficult.

Thank you for sharing your knowledge <img src=' http://www.americanbladesmith.com/ipboard/public/style_emoticons//smile.gi f' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':)' />

Luiz, I'm very glad you found my answer helpful! Did you try it? How did it turn out?

Zack

|quoted:

Luiz, I'm very glad you found my answer helpful! Did you try it? How did it turn out?

Zack

I didn't try yet. I was busy finishing 2 knifes for a Show last weekend in Sao Paulo - Brazil, which paid off since Mr. Jerry Fisk made lots of (unexpected) compliments about my work and invited me to go to Blade Show next year and try the Best New Maker category. <img src=' http://www.americanbladesmith.com/ipboard/public/style_emoticons//smile.gi f' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':)' />

(imagine how my ego is!)

This week i'll make a kitchen knife and will follow your tips! Thank you very much! <img src=' http://www.americanbladesmith.com/ipboard/public/style_emoticons//biggrin.gi f' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':D' />