Handle Construction

[Jeremy]

That's exactly what I was talking about Lin.  Man I love your style... gonna have to talk you into making me a knife one of these days!

[Lin Rhea]

Thanks Jeremy. A lot of us make mortised tang handles. Here is a simlar construction, but a little more basic. Stick Tang. For this handle the tang hole is drilled into the block of wood then filed or cut to allow for the width of the tang. The is no need for two pins, but you could put two if you want. The tang would go at least two thirds the handle length into the handle. This type of construction calls for a good epoxy, but notice I always use a pin anyway.

Note: If I use one pin, I locate it about 1/3 the distance from the guard to the butt. If I use two pins, I divide it into 4 parts, having two part between the pins.

This type of construction may work better for some makers, especially if they dont have a way of cutting the block in half but they do have a drill. It's all about options. Lin
 

[Jeremy]

Love the way you added the resist the get the raised barbed wire on that one.

I prefer the look of the mortised tangs where the block isn't split.  Drill it undersized and carefully open it up to allow for the width and thickness of the tang.  It takes longer to fit than splitting the block, but it looks much cleaner imo.

A tip for guys who want to split the block and don't have a bandsaw: buy an inexpensive Ryoba saw from a hardware store.  It has a rip and crosscut edge and is very wide, making it easy to get dead flat cuts

[Lin Rhea]

Here is another example of a very simple construction method. The hole is drilled intot he handle and cleaned out to fit the tang and epoxied and pinned with a single pin. Lin
 

[beaver#1]

now that is a clean nice.  never seen one of yours with out a guard.