Peening pins

[Leftieshot]

I am close to finishing my first knife.  I was wondering when you peen the pins and with what besides a hammer.  Do you peen as you glue the scale onto the blade tang?  How much longer do you make the pins vs. the finished knife thickness?  I'll be using 1/8" brass for pins.

[brettlandon]

Steve, I've learned a lot about peening (mostly the hard way) and I've developed this method.  I glue the scales on with or without the pins.  If I havent glued the pins in yet, I do this next.  Then I trim them very close to the scales (I have not shaped the scales at this point) and place them on my anvil (table saw) and strike with the ball end of my hammer three or four short, sharp blows (not trying to kill it here)  I turn the knive over and repeat for the other side.  
All you are doing is trying to expand the metal to fit the holes, and this should take very little deformation.  I have left the pins too long and bent them over (which split the scale), and I have peened to much which over expanded the brass (which also split the scale).  Brass is somewhat soft and will not take much to move.  
There are real experts on this site whose opinions I would value over my own, but I just wanted to share my experience in case you were in a hurry.  Best of Luck!

-Brett

[Jeremy]

In most cases I don't bother peening the pins going through the scales.  It doesn't contribute too much more to holding them on - the epoxy and the pins going though them do that very well.  I've done it to make the pins look bigger, but it was just for the visual effect.

I do peen any pins that go through the brass or nickel silver guards or bolsters though.  Bolsters I don't solder or anything, just pins.  Peening the pins compresses everything together.

In either case, get the scales/bolsters down to near finished dimensions.  With wood that's all you have to do.  With metal, chamfer the edges around the hole.

Trim your pin to length and insert it into the hole, letting it stick out from the sides about as far as the pin is thick.  You should also grind the ends of the pin into a cone shape before doing this, but you can do it after the fact with a dremel tool if you're careful.

Take the flat face of a ball peen hammer and give each end of the pin a few good taps to start it.  This expands the pin through the material and should be good enough for wood, but lets not stop there  

Switch to the round face of the ball peen hammer and start tapping the center of the pin.  You're not trying to whack it and expand the whole pin, you're just working what's sticking out of the material.  As you do this the metal starts spreading out and down.  Keep doing this until the pin fills the chamfer you did in the brass, or just starts to cut into the wood.  Nothing will move that stuff now!  

File everything smooth and sand.

For reference, an 1/8" pin properly peened should end up somewhere around 3/16" in diameter.  You can peen them more (and I have) and get them out to 1/4", but you really risk splitting the wood with that much tapping.

You can also put a brass washer on either side of the handle and then peen a steel or nickel pin over that.  Gives a nice effect and helps prevent splitting.

[Jeremy]

This Knife  was my first attempt at peening pins on a hidden tang knife.  Those pins are actually 1/16" pins that are peened out to about 3/16".  I didn't get them perfectly round (hard to do with a soft wood like birch) but I like it a lot better than the 1/16" pins  

[Lin Rhea]

I cant say much more about peining pins, but I will suggest that something that might work for some knives.

   Ever had a handle material or shape that is a little slick and would like to add something to make it more grippy? I like to dome my pins on some. I wait till the handle is nearly finished and sometimes completely finished and insert the pin material and pein it into a dome. This gives you a better grip and allows you to index the knife while not looking at it.
   

    In this example I domed the pins for grip, not indexing. Pardon the fact that it's not particularly a hunting knife. Maybe you can see the pins with the medium sized image.

                                Lin

[Jeremy]

Pardon the fact that it's not particularly a hunting knife.

Looks like a perfect Hog knife to me...
or if'n you're like Mr La Clair it's a nice bunny knife  :D

[OconeeDan]

Very nice knives, Lin.  That one in the middle...the inlay.  What is it?  And is it meant to be left plain or engraved with something such as initials?

[Lin Rhea]

Dan,
      It's all the same knife from different views. Just fancy photography.

     The escutchion plate is just a piece of stainless inletted into the handle material. It can be engraved or initialed, sure thing.

                           Thanks, Lin