[Håvard Nygård]

Hello. This is a viking utility knife from Norway of the late 9th century. Does any of you know how the tang is fitted to the handle on these types of knives?
It is a common construction of this era to have the tang penetrate the entire handle and then to either form a loop at the end of the tang or bend it on the butt end of the handle/shaft.

So my questions are, is the tang bent inside the wood or simply bent on top of the wood?

[Håvard Nygård]

I can add the fact, that the end of the tang that forms the loop or the bend of these types of knives, are done this way because of fasting a strap of leather to it.
The strap will function as a easier removal of the knife from the sheath. The way the sheath is made will cover almost all of the handle/shaft of the knife, to make it more secure so it does not fall out.

[Dan D'Silva]

I don't know the answer, but it would seem to me that bending the tang on the outside would be much easier to achieve and as long as the tip was tight enough against the top of the handle (which, if it did loosen up, could be corrected with a vise and a few whacks with a hammer now and then) there wouldn't be much disadvantage to doing so.

[Håvard Nygård]

Thank you for your answer, Dan.

I agree with you that the shape of the bend looks like it is just hammered down towards the shaft after complete penetration.
My consern was if that is secure enough after much use with pulling it out of the sheath, but maybe they just hammered it into position again if it came loose.

The angle of the bent tang supports this theory. The angle would have to be steeper if it were hammered into the wood of the shaft.