Well, I took something I learned from a guest poster and applied it to my life. And so far, it has worked. I know a guy who hikes all of the time and finds a lot antler sheds. He keeps the good ones and wheels and deals with them. I approached him the other day about the not-so-good sheds and just a few days later, he brought me these:
Because I don't find many knives on the pile, I bought these from
Ben's Backwoods. I love his site.
Mora knife blanks. The question: I know I should trim some of the tang........but how much?
Pax Domini Sit Semper Vobiscum,
Mike, Oscar, Hotel.....out.
I have read that you need atleast 2.5 inches of tang. Check out the internet for some of the cut-away handles from production MORA Knives to see what they do.
ReplyDeleteI would try to maintain as much over that 2.5 inch length as possible. Watch the temp line(that blue line by the semi circular cut on the tang) that is where the hardening of the steel starts. If you want to cut the tang shorter than the semi-circ., you will need to remove the hardening. (from the semi-circle to the tang end point has not been hardened)
If you do want to shorten it shorter than the semi-circ, be very careful. You will need to remove the hardening/heat treating to the cut off point and keep the blade COOL; heat only the tang. (Some knife makers use a wet rag wrapped around the tang to be kept and blade. I use a raw potato skewered on the tang between the blade and where I want to remove the hardening to.) Heat the tang where you want to cut up to cherry red; and let it air cool. If a file will score it after it has cooled, the hardening is gone. If not - repeat- you probably didn't get it hot enough.
Once you have successfully removed the hardening from the tang to the point you want to cut it. You can go ahead with cutting it. You can use a hacksaw, but a "dremel" type of rotary tool with a fiberglass cut off disk works best. As always keep the hardened part of the blade and remaining tang cool at all times.
I must warn you, knife making is VERY habit forming.
Good luck.