All About Pocket Knives

Thought a thread sharing the different methods of peening might be nice:

My way:
- use the ball end of a small ball-peen hammer (the ball is very polished)
- prepare the pins by grinding a small bevel (45 degrees or so) around the end of the pin so that it looks like this but with a shallower angle
.._____
./........ \
|...........|
|...........| (edit - had to add dots to keep the right shape)
- I let the pin stick out above the scale/bolster about 1/2 the diameter of the pin
- peen carefully with vertical strikes, and some times with strikes that skew off to the side...this expands the pin more in one direction
- if necessary, I'll take off some of the resulting peened head with a file to get more expansion of the pin
- I haven't been too worried about denting the scale or bolster as I figure getting a good head is the first task, cleaning up the resulting damage is the next task
- when peening, I let the dead end (active end is the one I'm peening) of the pin rest on a hard surface (in my case, the flat back of my bench vise)

And how do YOU do it:

Cheers,
J

(note that I have omitted the necessary profanity and severe language that always has to accompany any hand tool activity involving any task with a permanent result)

I'll share how I did it, but I'm not very good at it yet. I started out by inserting a length of pinstock throughthe hole until about 1/16" of pin was present on the active side. The length of pinstock on the dead side was clamped into a vise. I began peening vertically with the flat side of the ball-peen just until the head spread out and then tried to round it out with glancing blows around the head. (I was however trying to minimize damage as I had already put finish on the scales. If you are going to do it this way it would probably be a good idea to have a smaller ball-peen as I still dinged up my scales.)

After the head was spread out I removed the knife from the vise and cut the pinstock to size on the dead end. I used the flat area of the vise (covered with masking tape to protect from scratches) to rest the knife on while peening the opposite side.

I also did some of this & this !@#$!!

Nick

I use an 8 or 12 ounce ball peen hammer. I mirror polish the ball. I also put a quick taper (light bevel) on the ends of the pin to help produce the rounded head. I use light taps because I've found that this tends to spread the head instead of the shaft of the pin. Spreading the shaft will split your handle material unless you are using the stout synthetics like Micarta or G10. I try to set the opposite side of the pin that I'm peening on a nail set clamped in a vise. It can be a little nerve racking.
I've spun a few on spinners I made out of a nail set sized to match the pin. I slot the business end of the nail set with a diamond cutting wheel on a Dremel tool. It helps me to peen the pin a little prior to spinning. I don't have any pictures at this time.

I haven't used a pin spinner myself....I'm assuming you chuck it in a drill press, low rpm, and just push down on the top of the pin?

When you say "nail set" you mean a punch for setting finishing nails, right?

thanks,
j

Yes, the one for finishing nails. It's a hard steel which is why I used a little diamond cutting wheel to slot it. It's difficult to get the slot well centered. I dish a groove along the slot with a narrow round file to give the face a look like a plastic lid that is cupped. I went through several nail sets before it looked symetrical to me. The imports are pretty cheap.
I rest the handle on something firm but not hard like two layers of duct tape over a thin rubber pad laying on a cross slide vise jaw. The cross slide helps get your alignment with the drill press just right. RPMs are slow to medium. The spinning is done slowly with frequent checks on progress.
I like the look of a peened pin and I also like the certainty that your handle material won't split when you spin the pin. I guess it depends which side of the bed I got up on.
There are a number of knifemaking supply companies that sell pin spinners but I've never used one. Don't know what I'm missing prob'ly.

it's more efficient and you get a tighter and more uniform spin if you back the pin you are spinning with a like size non-spinner. puts the energy on the pin instead of the handle material. allows pressure to help set the pin close to the bone. clear as mud, eh?

I usually try and spin the heads before I peen them. Then I file them or what ever it takes to get them to look right.

Several people have asked about head or pin spinners. I have some one I bought & some I made. The home made ones work as good or better than the ones I bought ones.

I make my spinners out of set screws. I drill them to the right size., one size above the size of the pin I want to spin, e.g., for a 1/16" pin I use a 5/64" hole in the set screw. I usually sand down the set screw so it isn't too deep & mess up the scales. I cut a cross pattern in the spinner with a thin Dremel cutting disc.

I make the pin support like the spinner, but without the cuts in it.

Just the way I do it.
Dale

A photo is worth a thousand words....I just have to try this!

Thanks guys.

We skinned that cat a few different ways. Great thread.

Well, Dale I 'm gonna have to try that now.

I usually prepare a flat end on the pin then use light taps from a ball peen hammer to produce the head, then I clamp it in the vice to tap the pin through until the head bottoms out, then, cut the other side off and file it down to about 1/16" high, then peen everything down tight while it rests on top of my anvil. Just the way I do it, I don't really have a fixed way of doing things, you have to approach each knife differently, depending on deisgn and handle material ECT. Nice to see how others do it.

muskrat man wrote:You have to approach each knife differently, depending on deisgn and handle material ECT. Nice to see how others do it.

That is SOOOoooooo true. Wood is different from stag, and they are both different from bone. Horn is different still. The jigging pattern and roughness of the stag or bone effects what you can do.

I also agree that it is nice to see how others do things.

As a point of interest:
Would anyone be interested in seeing how I took apart a 3OT?
I took some pics, so if anyone is interested let me know & I will start a thread about it.
Dale

go for it dale! i'm interested.

Let's see it Dale, I've never been "inside" of a schrade lockblade myself. I've altered them from the outside, but have yet to take a peek at thier guts.

Back to the topic of peening..........

I just finished a 77OT Muskrat that had one broken blade. I used red jigged bone for the scales. I like the look of the pins so I decided to put the scale pins in. When thinking about spinning the heads, I had an epiphany.

I put the head spinner in my drill press vise and chucked a short piece of 1/16" brass pin stock in my drill press. I then spun the pin into the stationary head spinner.

It worked so well that I made up a bunch of pins. I would taper both ends of a piece of 12" pin stock then cut off about 1" lengths. Inserting the tapered end in the chuck I spun the heads on to the pins. I did a dozen pins in about 20 minutes, maybe a little less.

I just thought I would share that method with you. It works well when you only need a head on one end, like for handle scales. I just peen the inside end of the pin on the liner, then file it down.

Dale

Sweet mother of somebody famous! You are a genius - now why didn't I think of that!

j

I've got to try it. I'm headed out to the shop, bye! Good thinking Dale

MM,
Let us know if it works for you. Maybe I just got lucky.

Dale

I'll give it a go in a little bit also. Been with a bunch of stick blade skinners the last month. I'd like some time to play with some barlows and a saddlehorn for myself.

Jaye, MM & Hukk.........
You never came back to tell how spinning the pin with the spinner stationary worked for you.
I am curious to know how it worked.

It has been almost 2 years since we had any new posts on pin spinning.
Has anyone come up with a new method or a better method?

I have found that lubrication seems to be the key to spinning a good pin.
I use a cutting oil called Ultra Lube. It is so thick it is more of a gel than a liquid.
I get it from Tracy Mickley at Midwestern Knifemakers Supply: http://www.midwestknifemakers.com/

Anyone else have a new "secret" for spinning pins?
I would like to know how some of you put a head on a larger pin, say 3/16".
They can be troublesome at times.

Dale

I had pretty good success with both 3/32 and 1/16 pins. Nickel-silver and brass. Steel pins, I could not spin.

I used a little Delta 8" benchpress. Good support underneath, slow speed and steady pressure with a light 3:1 oil. For a spinner, I made a couple out of set screws, and also hex-drive screws which already had a little concave bottom on them. I find that preparing the pins with a little bit of a top bevel all around works well, and also making the top of the pin flat with a file, part way thru the spinning process seemed to help the dome form.

For all my pins, they ended up looking a little pointy on top (because I used a conventional drill to make my spinner), but still spread out (ie mushroomed). I just hit the tops with a little sandpaper or file and buffed and they turned out fine.

Here's a couple of photos of what the pins look like when I'm done.

Haven't worked on a knife in many months now. Kids, life and work all seem to take priority.

Cheers,
D