Material for peining

[John L]

What material works the best for holding small scales? .......SS, welding rod, solder, nickel silver? Looking at 1/16" more or less.

 

[B Finnigan]

Copper, brass, NS, iron, bronze I have used all of them with good success. It is more technique then type of metal. I had to make a micro pien hammer to do a decent job on some 3/32 brass pins. I am sure they make very small ball pien hammers but I just decided to turn one on the lathe. The ball was less then 1/2" diameter but they body of the hammer was oversized so it still had enough mass to pien.

The piening work hardens the non ferrous metals so even soft ones firm up real well.