Peening Scandi Knife Handle

[Mobius1]

I've recently been getting into making rat tang Puukko knives, but the one issue I am running into, is peening the tang at the butt of the knife, to secure it well. I don't like the idea of relying solely on glue to hold everything together, so I have been using Nickel Silver plate at the butt of the handle, and drilling a hole for the tang to fit through.

The issue I ran into, was that the metal was hardened from heat treating, so I was unable to peen it. What I ended up doing was cutting the tang a little short, tapping it, and using a screw to secure it. But I'm not so thrilled with this method.

The steel is 3v, so I am heat treating it in an oven. Even though I'm not quenching the tang (I quench in oil.), it still gets hardened to the point that it kept breaking when I tried to peen it.

Anyone have any tips?

 

[Stacy E. Apelt - Bladesmith]

After HT and tempering, heat the tang with a torch to a very dull red ( just barely visible - not bright red). It must stay magnetc. Keep it there for a couple minutes if you can. Let it cool slowly to black, then cool in water. That shold soften the 3V enough to peen the tang.

 

[Mobius1]

Thanks for the advice. I will give that a try!