Full Tang in Nalgene Bottle?

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gra_farmer

Full Member
Mar 29, 2016
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If you have learned how to use a knive correctly, you will of course not break a stick tang knife so easily, especially if it is one of the usual Scandinavic quality makers.

If I think about, I have only seen broken old Frosts, and new Morakniv and Asian stuff, but never a broken EKA, Helle, Marttiini, or hand made one from a smaller manufacturer. That may have something to do with the fact, that more expensive knives usually are owned by more experienced people. But that also may result of the fact, that the cheap usual Mora knives simply have pretty thin blades. The Fulltang Morakniv Garberg is of course as good as indestructible, but I guess even the Mora Companion Heavy Duty doesn't break so easily.
I have had a brand new helle viking blade break on me with first use. Fault in the tang, porous metal. Emailed helle, with pictures, no reply, ended up welding it
 

Erbswurst

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Mar 5, 2018
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Oh!
Do we get things like this now with every change of the ownership to the next generation?
Slowly it seems to become complicated to find trusty equipment.

Why didn't you bring it back into the shop?
 
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Billy-o

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Apr 19, 2018
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That may have something to do with the fact, that more expensive knives usually are owned by more experienced people. But that also may result of the fact, that the cheap usual Mora knives simply have pretty thin blades. The Fulltang Morakniv Garberg is of course as good as indestructible, but I guess even the Mora Companion Heavy Duty doesn't break so easily.

Whilst there can't be much doubt that a full tang handle will be stronger that a short sticktang ... people will give an affordable knife more hell and torture than they will their nice expensive knife. It is like a safety feature, the expense :lol:
 
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Erbswurst

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Mar 5, 2018
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So, obviously this can happen to every factory new knife. And instead of treating the new shiny beauty as carefully as possible, it's obviously the best to buy a full tang knife, that is sold and meant as a survival knife, and to beat it through the most knotty and hardest branches one can find.

If it breaks you bring it immediatly back into the shop.
If it survives the bad treatment it's a good survival knife and after resharpening and oiling it it's allowed to live in the survival bottle.

I think similar tests are a good idea for every other item one wants to store in it as well.

All stuff I broke during the last 40 years of outdoor life I broke pretty soon within a couple of weeks or month of regular use.

Only polyester fabrics with polyurethane coating and modern boots degraded by aging and gave up the ghost after several years.
 
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TLM

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Nov 16, 2019
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If it survives the bad treatment it's a good survival knife and after resharpening and oiling it it's allowed to live in the survival bottle.
This applies to all equipment taken into serious use but especially to ones that are there for backup.
it was probably hit on the handle when battening
Looks like it
 
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Erbswurst

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Is the tang of the new ones also short like this?
Especially: Is the tang of the currently sold Morakniv Companion heavy duty also short like this?

What I really like, is if the knife maker sells the blades separately too. Like this you can see, if you have one piece of solid steel or if the maker, why ever, drilled a lot of large holes into the full tang, so that it became weak like a stick tang.
 

brancho

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Feb 20, 2007
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Is the tang of the new ones also short like this?
Especially: Is the tang of the currently sold Morakniv Companion heavy duty also short like this?

What I really like, is if the knife maker sells the blades separately too. Like this you can see, if you have one piece of solid steel or if the maker, why ever, drilled a lot of large holes into the full tang, so that it became weak like a stick tang.

Most of the he moulded plastic knives have tangs like that the wooden handle knives like the No1 have a tang as long as the handle
I am not sure about the companion
 
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brancho

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Feb 20, 2007
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A little knife made with a greenwood handle. A small branch about 40mm in diameter cut an hour or so before carving to shape with the frost 106 in shot. No glue used the wood shrinks onto the tang and only a small was drilled and the tang forced into the wood. The little knife is nice to use and is quite good for carving and can be used quite heavily and is yet to move. This was made as demonstration before our Scouts made their own.

Green wood handle 1 by Alf Branch, on Flickr

Green wood handle 2 by Alf Branch, on Flickr

Knifeblade blanks by Alf Branch, on Flickr

Handle blanks by Alf Branch, on Flickr
 
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Erbswurst

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The tang of the red wood handle Moras became shorter during the last 20 years.

Around 1990 it went through the complete handle, nowadays it ends somewhere in it.
 

brancho

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Oh yeah should added a link to the thread of the Scouts knives. We got the idea from Danish Scouts but Mors Kochanski talks a knife repair in this way and he recommends a stick for this reason I recall
 

Billy-o

Native
Apr 19, 2018
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This conversation is making the issue more usefully complex. There is the failure of the handle, the failure of the tang, and the failure of the relationship between the tang and the handle. There is also the tang just being too short, which is a design failure in the context of particular usage. Not that much of this wisdom matters if your knife has broken and you are stuck somewhere in the peeing down cold rain.

Personally, just personally, I prefer to see a rivet on the tang of anything other than an 'edge-to-edge' full-tang knife. But, that said, I do own a few with shorter tangs. Two of them have loosened a little; both Moras with wood handles, and repaired by dribbling in some Araldite. Maybe some 5-minute epoxy in the survival kit. :):lol:

I fixed a loose axe-head once by soaking it in linseed and white spirit ... but that is hardly a solution in an emergency. Maybe soaking in water would help in that situation .... straying far OT now though
 
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Jared

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Sep 8, 2005
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Talking of fixing tanged knives reminded me of this video from junglecrafty. Fixing a handle to tang of a parang using a plastic bag.

 

Allans865

Full Member
Nov 17, 2016
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East Kilbride
A Lionsteel M4 fits inside nicely if you were to substitute the sheath for something a little less substantial.

You won't find a finer survival knife in my opinion

ATB

Allan
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Erbswurst

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20,5 cm length Lionsteel M4
20,4 cm height of the steel bottle inside.

20,5 length Casström Woodsman
Perhaps this knife fits even with leather sheath?
The before mentioned knives would fit perhaps too with leather sheath?

Slowly we touch here pretty serious dimensions!

:cool:
 

Allans865

Full Member
Nov 17, 2016
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East Kilbride
The Lionsteel M4 sheath was just a little too tight in the mouth of the nalgene bottle, I didn't want to force it too much as it may have damaged the sheath (I'm not bothered about damaging the bottle).

I'm sure that with some leatherworking skills it would be possible to make a narrower sheath that would fit inside the bottle....that is if you plan to use a Lionsteel M4 of course.

ATB

Allan

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