peening a tang?

Godspeed

Well-Known Member
I'm making a small pukko style knife out of 1095, and I need to peen the end of the tang to hold it all together. I've never done this type of knife before, so my question is... Does anyone have any tips for doing this? Do I try to just clamp the blade in a vise while peening? or stick the tip in a block of wood? (sounds like a bad idea). Any help would be appreciated.
Adam
 
Basically there are two slightly different ways of doing this. Either way make sure that the end of the tang is dead soft. With 1095 you can heat just the end red a couple of times and let it cool. Of course, if you heated the end red to burn the tang in then you already have this done. Trim the tang to where it sticks up about 1/16" above the peaning block. BTW, I rest the tip of the knife on a block of wood while I'm peening. It can be just a piece of scrap. You would run the risk of scratching up the blade clamping it in vice jaws.

You can just strike the end of the tange with the ball peen to cause it to muchroom out until it's getting tight and then flatten it with the face of the hammer. That will leave a button formed from the end of the tang over the end of the peening block. You will have to clean up the end of the peening block with files and sandpaper to get the hammer marks out.

The second way is to bevel the inside edge of the hole in the peening block. Then you force the end of the tange to expand into and fill the bevel with the peen. Finish up with a couple of blows from the face of the hammer to make sure that its set. Then you can grind the face of the peening block and the tang flush and smooth. The expanded steel in the bevel of the hole will keep everthing together. If the peening block is steel and you expand the tang tightly in to hole you will hardly be able to spot where the end of the tang is.

Doug Lester
 
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