Thread: Learning to Peen

(I love it how something that can seem like an exaggeration is sometimes the simple truth.)

Well I've gotten to the point that I'm working on wood finish and between coats I figured I'd start learning to peen so I'd be ready when the time comes to do it for real. Unfortunately I'm waiting for my peening hammer to come in the mail. I've read a number of you restore junkies, when describing how hard you strike the pin, that the hit is light enough that you can peen with a tablespoon.

So I figured what the hell and grabbed a tablespoon to practice, and sure enough, here is my first peen ever done with a tablespoon...

WOW, Nice work. Who needs a hammer.

Nice. I've been using a hammer and tapping real gently. I'm gonna try the spoon.

How long did it take? Is the pin Brass?

Nice! Where did you buy your brass pins?

The pin is brass and I purchased the brass rods at a local hobby shop

it only took a few minutes to peen but this is my first peen and I've never used a hammer so I have no point of comparison. When I get my hammer and practice a few peens I'll put up some comparisons.

It's nice to see someone used a spoon and it works. It looks like you did a real nice job. I once read somewhere, that when peening, the strike should be light enough that if you hit your finger, it wouldn't hurt. I don't know if that's true or not, but I thought it was interesting.

Very nice job.

Chris L

Originally Posted by keenedge

It's nice to see someone used a spoon and it works. It looks like you did a real nice job. I once read somewhere, that when peening, the strike should be light enough that if you hit your finger, it wouldn't hurt. I don't know if that's true or not, but I thought it was interesting.

The tablespoon has a wider striking head than a hammer and I did not consider this little fact. I accidentally hit my fingers several times while doing this peen and it never hurt once, so I would assume what you heard is true.

I could have used this thread a week ago before my first re-scaling attempt.

I used a small regular hammer and bent the first pin so the scales were off-line. Luckily I had another one and did a little better job the second time, but I was definately hitting it too hard.

Actually, it was that sub-par re-scaling that got me back on here (haven't been on since it was a yahoo group), so there's that I guess...

I really need to learn some peening. The first scales I made just had a flat top on the pins, no fancy dome. Maybe I will try with a spoon. But I feel bad making all that noise in my apartment.