I've been tweaking and making straight razor scales for a while and the pins have always been the major hurdle for me.

My question is about "extra" pins or "stabilizing pins". Say I've got a pair of 2 piece ivory scales, where each scale is made up of two seperate pieces of ivory. I'd like to put a pin in the corners where the two pieces join. This would be 2 pins per ivory piece, 4 pins per scale, 8 pins total.

The pins I've seen are always smaller than the pivot pin and rarely have any washer or collar. Is it safe to peen a pin like this? I don't want to risk putting a stabilizing pin in the end of a nice MOP scale if the process is to risky. Perhaps these pins are merely decorative and they aren't peened at all, just glued in and sanded flush?

Any advice or links would be appreciated.

Thanks,

Matt