Tang width

[Uncle Alvah]

This is the breechplug/tang furnished with my barrel.
I'm fine with the shape itself but I'm wondering if its a mite wide for the wrist and should be shaped down some?
 

[Mike Brooks]

In my opinion, most/maybe all "fared" tangs are too flared these days and should be filed down some. I also hate ( I know, I'm an extremist...) how short they make tangs these days, can't get a good thumbnail finial on them.

[elkhorne]

Mike,
Hope you are feeling better and on the mend! Have you, or anyone you have heard of, welded a piece of flat stock on the back of one of these short tangs to get enough to form the thumbnail finial and look right? Just curious.
elkhorne

[rich pierce]

It's pretty easy to lengthen a tang by forging it out.  It can even be cold forged with a nice cross peen hammer.  25% elongation is not hard to get. Tangs are thicker than they need to be anyway.

[Curtis]

Uncle Alvah,

Yep, it looks a bit wide to me, I would file it 'till it looks right for the wrist.

Elkhorne,

I have done like Rich described and forged the the tang out longer.  He is spot on with his posted information and methods.   Also I have welded an extension on a tang in order to lengthen it for a thumbnail etc.  If the weld is done well you will never see it.

Curtis

[Chowmi]

If you have a swamped barrel, you might consider using the natural flare of the breech end of the top flat of the barrel as a guide.
In other words, make the front end of the tang the same width as the top flat, and then if you imagine extending the flare of the top barrel flat along the tang (in a straight line).
If your barrel is not overly swamped, this will result in a slight flare of the tang. Not too much, as Mike mentioned.
If it still looks too wide, then you can still file it narrower and reduce the flare.

I found it difficult to tell from your photo just how wide it is, but seems quite wide given the width of the stock.

Cheers,
Norm.

[smallpatch]

Think about shortening it a bit.  That will slim it down some.  You can file from there if necessary.  Hard to tell from the photo, cut seems well into the wrist from what I can tell.
Just a thought.

[John Archer]

Very difficult to tell from your photo. Back the camera off some so we can see a few inches of barrel and 12-15 inches of stock. When you hold the camera that close to the tang there will be huge distortion making any judgement of the width of the tang difficult.

John.