Don't use the tang of a hardened blade because the tempered hardness will be gone! Make a tool with the same dimensions to burn the hole if you want to use this smokey technique.

The experts will probably tell you something more about it, but a hole is a hole...no?

Chrs

Personally I do not heat treat tangs.... I prefer to leave then in an annealed state. It makes things much easier when it comes to assembly and finishing. I also prefer the toughness versus a heat treated tang.

Years ago when I was first getting started, I tried "burning" the tang(s) into handle material, and quickly found I did not like it. Depending on the handle material, I found that you can easily destroy a piece of handle materials via checking and cracking, and I also found that because of the "charring" some epoxies will not bond.

I prefer other methods but I will sometimes burn in hole. When I do, I have a way that I do it that minimizes the negatives.

After all we are walking a thin line between too much and too little on most stages of our knife making. So I think with some consideration of materials and technique this can be one option that is available.

I do start with a pilot hole and broach as far as I can comfortably remove the material. I only burn on wood.

I make a mock up of the tang(as mentioned above), slightly smaller than my actual blade tang, and use that as the tool. This tool is clamped in a vise in line with my approach with the block, then heated with the torch tip.

I quickly heat the only the very end ( 1/2 inch )of the tang mock up to a high red and shove it quickly past the face of the handle block and push hard for a couple seconds and then quickly remove it. Repeat as necessary. The three things done quickly will minimize the heat's exposure to the face of the block as well as the time it would take to cook the block beyond the intended charring.

As with a lot of the necessary skills we use in knife making, timing is critical. It can be done with satisfactory results if one takes care to consider the damage that can be done with a red hot piece of steel.

It's not my favorite way, but might sometimes be an option. It's one of those things that you are tempted to say "don't try this at home".

I've tried a number of methods for hollowing out the handle for the tang and settled on the method Lin describes here mortised handle tutorial it gives a very snug strong fit, and best of all, because the fit is so precise it allows you to do the finish work on the guard and handle before final assembly.

I have done it a few times when I just couldn't get the tang to fit right. One thing to keep in mind is if you are using a stabilized block of wood don't breath the fumes when it smokes. Use a fan to blow the smoke away from you. I'm sure those fumes are not good for you.

I only do this on natural wood, I can get very tight fits with little charring of the hole. I drill a pilot and drill the majority of material out. I use no more than 6-700 degf heats to slowly burn in the fit. I used this method in my Seax class at NESM last week, I got such a tight fit on my demo piece that you could tap the handle on to the blade and only remove it again by tapping with a hammer.

MP