# Help with Hidden Tang Design



## tostadas (Jul 12, 2021)

Hey folks, I'm looking to order some custom cut profiles in thin stock for a couple projects. I'm curious what considerations I should make with regard to length, thickness, height, shape etc. One of them is going to be for a very small handle (maybe like 15mm tall), so I guess I don't want it to snap or something at the connection.


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## branwell (Jul 14, 2021)

What re the dimentions of the blade and use case?


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## cotedupy (Jul 14, 2021)

^ What B said.

My answer might change but... first thing - I'd get the blade and tang hardened together uniformly.

On the Tosa blades I work with a lot I sometimes mod or alter the tang slightly to make it more uniform / easier to drill the slot for. Occasionally you come across one where the tang has been ht-ed along with the blade, and it's _very _noticeable... hardened steel is hard! And seriously difficult to deform or break.


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## tostadas (Jul 14, 2021)

branwell said:


> What re the dimentions of the blade and use case?





cotedupy said:


> ^ What B said.
> 
> My answer might change but... first thing - I'd get the blade and tang hardened together uniformly.
> 
> On the Tosa blades I work with a lot I sometimes mod or alter the tang slightly to make it more uniform / easier to drill the slot for. Occasionally you come across one where the tang has been ht-ed along with the blade, and it's _very _noticeable... hardened steel is hard! And seriously difficult to deform or break.


Currently thinking about doing a thin veggie cleaver around 210x90ish. I much prefer a shorter stubby handle to a long Japanese octo for this style, so I'd like to get a rough idea of appropriate minimum tang dimension.


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## cotedupy (Jul 14, 2021)

tostadas said:


> Currently thinking about doing a thin veggie cleaver around 210x90ish. I much prefer a shorter stubby handle to a long Japanese octo for this style, so I'd like to get a rough idea of appropriate minimum tang dimension.



Ah ok... I don't know if this helps in any way, but here's a picture of a similarly sized knife I'm working on atm. The tang is actually a bit thicker than the start of the spine at around 4mm. I terms of width it goes down quickly to 1cm +/- a few mms for most of the length. Length I've cut it off to 8cm, which is plenty. Though I also like shorter stubbier handles on this kind of thing, and it'll mean careful drilling as the tang will extend almost all the way to the bottom. (And as I think you might have seen on my ig - I do it by hand... cleaver handles like this are a nightmare!):







It might also depend on how the knife is going to be held. I use a two fingered pinch grip on knives like this with my fingers running down the outside of the blade in a v-shape. Used like this there's very little stress on the tang/handle, though if someone's holding it with a hammer grip it'd be more of an issue.

I'd have thought 1cm x 3mm x 5cm should be alright...


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## branwell (Jul 14, 2021)

I'd probably go with a tang 11 to 13mm tall x 3 to 3.5mm wide with about 75mm inside the handle.


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## tostadas (Jul 15, 2021)

cotedupy said:


> Ah ok... I don't know if this helps in any way, but here's a picture of a similarly sized knife I'm working on atm. The tang is actually a bit thicker than the start of the spine at around 4mm. I terms of width it goes down quickly to 1cm +/- a few mms for most of the length. Length I've cut it off to 8cm, which is plenty. Though I also like shorter stubbier handles on this kind of thing, and it'll mean careful drilling as the tang will extend almost all the way to the bottom. (And as I think you might have seen on my ig - I do it by hand... cleaver handles like this are a nightmare!):
> 
> View attachment 134462
> 
> ...


Have you ripped the handle off of a CCK slicer? Any idea what the tang on that looks like inside? The blade portion is similar to what I'm trying to go for.


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## cotedupy (Jul 15, 2021)

tostadas said:


> Have you ripped the handle off of a CCK slicer? Any idea what the tang on that looks like inside? The blade portion is similar to what I'm trying to go for.



Aye, that's what I figured... that picture above is actually a Leung Tim Sangdao #2, same size as the CCK 1302, so basically what you're going for, maybe marginally taller blade. I have also done to CCK - tangs are identical. Obviously though both are hammered round the wood at the end, so then I saw the end of the tang off.

The dimensions @branwell quoted above is kinda what the ones I do normally work out as. The dimensions I put were what I thought would be a safe minimum.

Hope that helps!


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## tostadas (Jul 15, 2021)

cotedupy said:


> Aye, that's what I figured... that picture above is actually a Leung Tim Sangdao #2, same size as the CCK 1302, so basically what you're going for, maybe marginally taller blade. I have also done to CCK - tangs are identical. Obviously though both are hammered round the wood at the end, so then I saw the end of the tang off.
> 
> The dimensions @branwell quoted above is kinda what the ones I do normally work out as. The dimensions I put were what I thought would be a safe minimum.
> 
> Hope that helps!


Excellent, that's really helpful info!


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