Cross pein vs straight pein?

[Taz]

I am looking at getting my first hammer soon and most of what I see is the cross pein style vs the straight pein. Are there pros or cons to either?

 

[weo]

It all depends on what direction you want to move the metal. When forging blades while holding the tang with your tongs, a cross pein will widen the blade and the straight pein will lengthen it.

So I'd say, if you plan to do mainly chef's knives get a cross pein.

 

[A.McPherson]

I think the thing that really makes the difference is how you like to forge... If you forge with your hammer hand parallel to the anvil, and hold your work perpendicular, you're going to get different results than if you hold both hands more parallel. Does that make sense?
Either way, your going to want both eventually.

 

[weo]

I think the thing that really makes the difference is how you like to forge.

This is true too. (I just didn't want to go there)

 

[Taz]

Ah, gotcha! For the only time I have forged, I used a cross pein to taper the tang and tip and it was a bit awkward, so I thought the straight pein would be better for stretching out and tapering the metal. But I see the cross pein for fullering/widening the steel and straight for lengthening. Now I have an excuse for getting 2 hammers!!!

 

[weo]

Now I have an excuse for getting 2 hammers

Just to clarify, you can use either for both tasks, but here's a quick quick sketch trying to describe what I was talking about above, and what's comfortable for me.

The black lines on the hammers are showing the orientation of the pein and arrows show the way it will move the metal.
If you only want one hammer, you could get a double diagonal pein hammer, but they will be a bit more expensive. After a few years of looking, I finally found one that I love this year made by a blacksmith here in the PNW named Jeffrey Funk for $160. If you get into forging other things than knives, You'll probably end up with 5-6+ different hammers. In my collection, there are 4 that I use on a fairly regular basis, and 2 others that I use often.

 

[Taz]

Yeah, it felt really odd to use the cross pein to lengthen/taper the metal that way, so I ended up using the horn to draw out the metal a bit. I will be picking up both it looks like anyway!