Cutting Stick Tangs

[mark a.]

Quick question: How do you shorten stick tangs? I'm going for the epoxy method rather than peening the end.

I tried my junior hacksaw, but it makes almost no impact. I don't have any angle grinders or dremels etc, and I don't want to have to buy any just yet. So is there a cheap trick I can try?

Cheers,

Mark

 

[scruff]

I've heared of, but am not recommending, holding the knife in a vice blade down/ tang up (held to the level at which you want to cut if off) and giving it a whack with a hammer.

I wouldn't do it especially if it meant holding any of the blade section in the vice.

A good metal cutting blade for your hacksaw may be a better idea though!

 

[scanker]

When I shortened a stick tang, no hacksaw blade would touch it and I had to borrow an angle grinder to go through it.

 

[Cormac]

tapping eachside with the hammer in a rocking back forward motion will create metal fatuge and it'll come off

 

[MattW]

It sounds like the tang is fully hardened (i.e. harder than your jacksaw blade).

Forget using hacksaws etc - your best (only) choices are a grinder / dremel (4" grinder with a metal cutting disk is best - could you borrow one? - it will take about 10 seconds ) or as mentioned above, hold it in a vice with the bit you want removed poking out above the vice jaws and give it a good clout with a hammer. Bending back and forward to fatigue it. probably won't work (chances are it'll snap as soon as you try to bend it, in which case your problem is solved!).

If you have a bench stone with a nice sharp corner, you could try grinding a notch in the tang using the stone, before you attempt the 'snap'. This will help it snap in the right place.

If you manage to borrow a grinder, make sure you do the cut slowly, dipping frequently in cold water to stop it getting too hot (overheating will ruin the temper on your blade). Make sure you wear eye protection and gloves.

hth

Matt

 

[longshot]

ok a couple of suggestions, do you have a cold chisle? you can use it to cut the tang at the approeratie place. or you can use a file to "cut" the tang where you need it. more work but cheaper.


dean

 

[Wayland]

For cutting harded steel I usually use a tile cutting blade in my hacksaw.

You can get them from B&Q they cut just about anything and the round one is useful for cutting odd shaped holes too.

 

[mark a.]

Ah, Wayland, you're a genius. I do actually have a tile blade for the hacksaw, so I'll give that a go.

If that doesn't work, I'll whack it as hard as I can. Should be fun!

 

[spamel]

I'm also trying to shorten a stick tang at the moment. The dremel really doesn't cut the mustard (Pardon the pun!) as it seems to be taking an age! Mr Welder at work will be recieving a call from me, once he stops messing about with his Willys Jeep restoration and gets some real work done!!

 

[Martyn]

You can get a brand new 4.5" angle grinder for < £15 if you look around. I think Argos & halfords have them. They are cheap, Chinese, come packaged with several disks and work perfectly well.

You can use the metal cutting wheel for profiling a blade and an abrasive flap disk for grinding bevels. One of the best bang for buck power tools you can buy.

 

[bloodline]

The hammer method worked for me not engineering I know but it was okay and all I could think of at the time

 

[Fenlander]

Use a batton with you knife to split logs.........that snapped the stick tang on my Mora

 

[bambodoggy]

Quick question: How do you shorten stick tangs? I'm going for the epoxy method rather than peening the end.

I tried my junior hacksaw, but it makes almost no impact. I don't have any angle grinders or dremels etc, and I don't want to have to buy any just yet. So is there a cheap trick I can try?

Cheers,

Mark

If you'd brought it over to mine at the weekend when you came, I have a dremel, an angle grinder and two grinding wheels....oh and tile blades from my hack saw! lol

 

[mark a.]

Typical! I only started it yesterday, though, so hadn't really planned that very well.

I should just realise that whenever I need a power tool, Bam will have it!

 

[Big John]

I bought a set of grinding tools to go in my electric drill when I needed to modify the tang of my blade - about £6 from my local motor factors:

http://www.drapertools-online.com/b2c/b2citmdsp.pgm?pp_skmno=49301

They worked quite well, but I suspect not as good as an angle grinder!

 

[Andy]

do you need the tang hardend. I know people heat up a small area of full tangs to drill holes in them. you may be able to soften the end of the tang by heating it up