Stub Tang Construction

[Ed Tipton]

I have recently begun making knives using stub tang construction. Most of my knives have been sporting a handle of white tail deer antler. Because of the curvature of the antler, it has been somewhat challenging in drilling the recess for the tang. It has ocurred to me that off-setting the tang more to the blade's edge would enable me to utilize more of the central area of the antler. My question is whether or not there are any negative consequences from doing this. I am certain that it would make for a stronger handle assembly, but not sure of any negative side effects that might be introduced. Up to this point, all of my stub tangs have been centered on the blade between the spine and the edge, but because of this, locating the recess within the handle can be tricky. I am thinking of off-setting the tang closer to the edge and then "angling" it towards the spine to accommodate the curvature of the antler. Comments please.

[Ray Rogers]

I rarely use antler but on my wood handles my stub tangs are always very close to the back edge of the knife. But, I don't see any reason the tang couldn't be placed anywhere you want to place it and angled any way you want to angle it as long as the resulting handle to blade angle turns out to be something usable. Carrying this angled concept to the extreme for the sake of illustration just imagine a handle and blade joined up in a horseshoe type pattern. Even at a 45 degree angle you'd probably get an adverse leverage trying to use the knife for a difficult cutting job. In other words, as long as you find the knife safe and comfortable to use then go for it....

[dbalfa]

I renently disassembled an old Schrade "Trapper" of 1950's vintage so as to re-handle it for a family member. I found that it's hidden tang was located more toward the edged than the spine - bout 2/3 the way down. Then, they ground the blade so as the start of the actual edge runs along a line that spits the tang down the center if you can visualize that. It is one of those narrow bladed knives - not my choice of designs- however, I can imagine it does offer lots of resistence to side to side twisting when applying the knife to a angled work piece.