Peening Pins

mattwheaton

mattwheaton

Joined
Jul 9, 2006
Messages
168
I am peening nickle silver pins with little luck. I get halfway through and the edges chip. I have , I think anealed them: orange heat and quench in water?
Any suggestions would be a big help.

Matt
 
I know there are other people who know the answer here better than me, but don't pins come already annealed? Wouldn't you quenching them make them hard and brittle?
 
It sounds more like you hardened them by quenching. Annealing involves letting in cool very slowly instead of quenching. Depending on where you got them, they usually don't need anything done to them in the first place.
 
clemsonreeder said:
It sounds more like you hardened them by quenching. Annealing involves letting in cool very slowly instead of quenching. Depending on where you got them, they usually don't need anything done to them in the first place.
Click to expand...

jawilder said:
I know there are other people who know the answer here better than me, but don't pins come already annealed? Wouldn't you quenching them make them hard and brittle?
Click to expand...

I know that that is true with steel. I am not sure about nickel silver but I know that copper and some other non ferrous metals will anneal when quenched.
 
Matt, your annealing procedure is fine. Heat to 1100-1500F and either quench or let cool in air, it doesn't matter.
FWIW, I always anneal nickel silver pinstock before I use it; it is not always as dead soft as it can be from the vendor.
 
I seem to get the same result, heating or not. It may just be a matter of technique. Thank you for the replies.

Matt
 
Nickel silver is about 75% copper (depends on the type). It anneals like copper (or brass or bronze, which are all copper-base alloys)... heat it and air cool or quench and it will soften either way. Usually air-cooled as there is nothing to be gained by quenching.

The pin material is likely to be formed by drawing. Drawing work hardens the material. Whether it is annealed (and to what extent) afterwards, or not, is dependent on the manufacturer and what the intended material use is... as in soft silver, 1/4 hard, 1/2 hard, full hard.

More than you ever wanted to know about copper and copper-base alloys... http://www.copper.org/. If you ever have questions about copper-base alloys, the people at this site will get you an answer... and they are happy to do it.

Mike
 
im wondering how much stock you leave out to peen and how fast your trying to peen them? i believe all answers to the softening procedure are correct imo, heat and quench, but i never do it and i use nickle silver pins on 99% of my knives, and never have them chip. try flattening them a bit to swell them and fill the countersink, then peen over and dome. i use a very small hammer, and just tap,tap,tap.......very easy and slowly, and it works fine. i usually buy them from jants, but on occasion i will use Ni rods, with the flux knocked off, and then i gotta go even slower, cause that nickle is darn hard stuff. maybe 1 out of 40-50 pins have to be taken out and done over, just guessing, cause i cant remember when i last had one go wrong,

i have had some trouble with bronze pins, but those i dont anneal either, although it would prob. be to my advantage.

just my thoughts, good luck,

andrew
 
Matt,
Your annealing procedure is fine.
I have worked nickel silver extensively and it takes quite a bit of hammering to get it hard enough to crack. your pins should be no more than half the diameter of the pin on each side. I suspect that you are trying to peen more than this.
Thanks,
Del
 
Too much pins exposed? That is it. I was also peening 1/8 pins with a little pecker ,uh hammer. Thanks for the responses I will work on it.

Matt
 
mattwheaton said:
Too much pins exposed? That is it. I was also peening 1/8 pins
Matt
Click to expand...

I think Del is right, your trying to move to much material. If your peening 1/8" (0.125" ) pins you should have no more than 1/16" (0.0625" ) of the pin that is proud of the bolster or handle material.
 
atakach said:
i have had some trouble with bronze pins, but those i dont anneal either, although it would prob. be to my advantage.

andrew
Click to expand...

There are two categories of bronze... wrought and cast. Most of the cast and some of the wrought that is similar in chemistry to the cast types don't cold work well. Annealing might help but I wouldn't figure it to solve the problem.

Mike
 
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