How do you cut your tang?

[epeeisky]

I just used a Dremel to cut through some foil tangs. It did take awhile, but it produces a clean cut.

[Barry Paul]

At competitions (20 a year) I cut down over 20 blades a day.
1. I have a vice mounted on my table.
2. Place the blade horizontally with the thread being removed in the jaws.(so the part being cut off is damaged)
3. Using a sharp hacksaw cut thru tang at position required.(placing the cut as close to the jaws as possible.)
4. Remove from vice. In the last 5 years I have only had to file down thread where it has been cut by the hacksaw once The thread is so coarse that a standard nut picks up the thread (even if slightly damaged in sawing) with no problems.
5. The only exception is when fixing our old lightweight sabre pommel where the initial thread was plastic.(no longer a problem as we have altered the mould.)

Barry Paul M.D. Leon Paul

[parrythis]

Originally Posted by El Chucko

I have tried a few times cutting tangs with my dremel, ... I got one of those reinforced cutting wheels, ... And, yes, the sparks are very cool!

It should probably be noted somewhere (here is as good a place as any) that when using any kind of high-speed spinning cutting tool, safety-glasses/eye-protection are highly recommended.

[RITFencing]

Let's not forget a nice, heavy pair of gloves. The eyes are more sensitive, but the hands are closer.

Yay, PPE!

[Barry Paul]

That why you should use a hacksaw. It is safer,faster and easier!

[Larrison]

Last (and only time) I cut down a tang...

Used a clamp to hold it to the surface of my workbench. Threaded a nut onto the threads past where I wanted to make the cut. Used a fairly new hacksaw blade to cut through the tang. Checked for long strips of metal left over from the cut -- weren't any. (But if there were, I'd have filed them off) Then I used a box-end wrench to back the nut off the cut threads on the cut tang. There was a moment of hesitation and the nut threaded off, just fine. Elapsed time < 5 minutes, once I had measured the length to cut (measure twice, cut once....)

Putting a nut on the threads first, past where you want to cut it allows you to use it to rethread or straighten any bent threads you might have slightly damaged in the cutting. If there's hesistation in backing the nut off after you've cut it, run the nut on and off the threads several times and it should true the threads up again.

(My initial response was .. "How do you cut your tang? About 50/50 with vodka..... " )

[Inquartata]

Originally Posted by Barry Paul

That why you should use a hacksaw. It is safer,faster and easier!

Logic like that will make no headway with fat, lazy Americans, who simply will not do anything for themselves that they cannot get a machine to do for them.

[Slim]

I'm retiring the Roto-zip back to cutting drywall.

[Barry Paul]

Originally Posted by Inquartata

Logic like that will make no headway with fat, lazy Americans, who simply will not do anything for themselves that they cannot get a machine to do for them.

I hope you are not insinuating that all the people who have admitted to using a dremel or such are fat and lazy. They are just missguided!

[KD5MDK]

Or just more evolved tool users...
Can't help it if the Industrial Revolution didn't hold in the place it started.