The Sticktang is a type that has been around for a very long time. The handle material is secured firmly between the guard and pommel . Today most sticktangs are secured by a threaded rod to the pommel such as with the Cold Steel Tanto. In the old days the tang end was simply mushroomed into a countersunk hole in the pommel or riveted over a suitable washer or directly over the pommel. A lot of those old cavelry sabres are done that way.
Stacked leather grips became prevalent in the mid 1800's and have
remained popular ever since. For this example, we have chosen to use leather but many
materials are suitable. Wood, ivories, horn, micarta, kraton, zytel etc have all been used
to good effect.
A stub tang blade can be adapted into a sticktang by slotting the end of the tang and
then welding a threaded rod into the slot. The slot provides a longer joint and is less
likely to fail compared to a simple butt weld.
Care should be taken to ensure a good fit between guard and tang as the finished
appearance of the knife and its weather worthiness are effected by the quality of this
fit.............Scribe a rectangle onto the guard material corresponding to the
crossection of the tang. Drill a line of holes inside the rectangle and file out the
web between them. Once it is possible to slid the guard part way up the tang look for
bright areas on the inside of the guard hole where it rubbed on the tang. They are high
spots so file them down and the guard will go a bit further onto the tang.. Once the guard
is almost home put the blade in a vise and set the guard onto its seat with a heavy pipe
and a hammer. If the hole ends up too big, use a ballpein hammer to spread material into
the hole then polish off the front surface and press it onto the tang again. If the tang
is tapered correctly on all four planes from the ricasso to the end, guard fitting is made
considerably easier. Many makers like to solder the guard at this point but it is
acceptable to make a tight fit and leave it at that. It also means that you can take off
the guard at a later date should you wish to dismantle the knife.
Leather washers are cut and slotted to fit. The washers should be snug to avoid the handle loosening with old age as the leather dries. Its a bit tedious but worth doing right. Tandy Leather used to sell a punch for slotting belts that might be of value in this regard.
The pommel is drilled, threaded and then screwed onto the threaded rod to torque down the assembly. If you don't have a tap, plan B goes into effect and you simply drill the pommel oversize and use a regular nut. Its not as neat as threading the pommel but it works well enough.
Anyway, torque the pommel or nut down hard to compress the leather. If it compresses too much and you run out of threaded rod, simply disassemble, add another couple of leather disks to the stack and reassemble again.
When it is stacked up and tight, all you have to do is grind off everything that does not look like a knife. This yields a light sturdy handle that is comfortable to use and hard wearing. It is also a way of using up those cutoff scraps of leather that are too small for anything else. A grip like this can generally be dismantled and repaired more easily than the scaletang or even the stubtang.
