What is the Tang of a Sword
I am often asked what is the the tang of a sword and what are the difference between the various types of tang. So in order to get that information to you i decided to write this little article.
What is the Tang of a Sword?
The Tang of a sword is the part of the blade that goes through the handle. Then handle in turn is attached to it.
There are different types of tang, here is a little resume that will help you understand each of them.
- Full Tang:The strongest of them all, swords with full tang are considered to be very solid constructions. The Full tang terms mean that the grip follows the exact shape of the tang which is a solid piece of steel. The handle was then attached to this part using various methods.
- Hidden Tang:This type of tang is also called rat-tail tang, This technique results in a much weaker type of sword. A Rat tail or hidden tail can be described as a thin, round bar of steel with a threaded end is welded to the blade shoulder. While this technique is often used to produced very effective and solid knives, it cannot be used to produced battle read-swords. the sword being a completely different weapon requires a full tang to endure the stress of use. Swords with Rat-tail tang are often considered as decorative swords.
- Sub tang:This type of sword is the exact reason why you need to know how to differentiate the various types of Tang. a sub tang is described as a very short piece of metal (less than an inch) that is inserted in the grip or handle. It is then fixed to the grip with epoxy. This technique is used to produce cheap swords in great quantities while reducing the amount of metal required. This type of weapon is for display only, any use of these type of sword is considered extremely dangerous.
There you go, now that you know what the various types of tang are, go get yourself a real sword and improve your collection 