What is the tang of a knife?

Answer 1

That tang is the part of the knife that goes into the handle. Full tang means that the metal goes the full length of the handle which helps both the strength and the balance. There is no screw or rivet attachment of the blade to the handle because the blade metal runs straight through to the end of the handle. This makes the survival knife much stronger. In fact, some survival knife models have the metal extend beyond the end of the handle so that the end of the handle can be used as a hammer. This hammer, often referred to as a pommel, can be used to pound tent stakes into the ground, to hammer loosened nails, for breaking glass to exit from a motor vehicle crash, or for good old fashioned self defense.