heat or epoxy on stick tang handle

[lurche 48]

whats the best ? i know the traditional way on this is for it to go all the way through the handle and be mushroomed at the end but as im after a clean finish dont want to go down this route.

is heat enough to hold it in or should it be epoxyed in place as i dont fancy it flying off.

should it be step drilled then epoxy, or step drill heat then remove and epoxy i think the latter would leave an unclean surface to stick to.

seen a youtube vid of it step drilled with a small exit drilled half way then filled with epoxy and left before shaping.

atb

[midnight 657]

pilot hole . heat the tang burn it in , pull it out apoxy and hammer it in !!

all the above ha ha

[Gin 498]

What we used to do with stag horn in stickmaking, was to drill out the soft core, to the "bone" edge. Then mix pure araldite and coat the inside surface of the hole. We then coated the steel bar with pure araldite. Then we mixed more araldite and mixed into that, horn dust or wood dust, like a paste, and we packed that into the hole, then pushed the bar into that and let it set. There is no way of getting it back out. Its the same principle for the knife tang. Two things to remember though,- you must drill a tiny escape hole for the air when you pack the hole with the "paste", and you must roughen up the tang,- file a few notches on it, to help prevent it pulling out. Fit the tang this way into your material, and i can't see it coming out.