Tang peening advice?

eric brinkerhoff

eric brinkerhoff

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Mar 10, 2013
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Here's a knife I'm working on right now it's 52100 at 60 HRC. I'm going to attempt to peen the tang. I know I'm going to have to soften the end of the tang. I'm probably going to try wrapping the blade in wet towels and heating up the tip of the tang with a mapp torch. Then I'm going to grind the tang down till it's maybe an eighth of an inch sticking out from the end of the pommel, then I'll start tapping it with a ball peen hammer.
If anybody's got any thoughts, tips ,or suggestions let me know before I go home and ruin this knife!
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I'd think you would want to grind it to 1/8" first then soften the end of the tang, so you don't grind away some of your softened tang if you're focusing the heat on the end of the tang. A can or jar full of water the same height as your blade works too then the whole blade is submerged and you don't have to worry at all about heat traveling into the blade.
 
Grind it to where you want it, then just clamp the tang in a vise-leaving about an inch exposed. Anneal.
Place the blade tip on a hardwood block, and peen the tang with a SMALL hammer-using short, light taps, using the hammer's inertia to move the tang metal..
Using a large hammer will just drive the knife into the wood.
 
Tap tap tap tap - light glancing blows. I think first time out we all would tend to hit too hard. It's a process, don't be in a hurry. If you have pins in the bolster or handle I trust that you can do a good job holding the padded blade in a vise with the bolster sitting solid on the top of the jaws. The transfer of the taps will not knock your blade out of the handle and the more solid support will allow the taps to be more effective. Not arguing with Mr. DeShivs - just offering another approach.
 
the "Death of a Thousand strikes" literally you hit it all around the edges ,then in a little more and so on .
don't expect it all to be done in a few strikes.. as Bill said it takes a ton of short taps..
 
Thanks you guys! That's about what I expected. It's not like I've never primed anything ,or "annealed" anything. Just wanted to talk about it some and get a confidence booster!
 
It can be helpful to practice with mild steel a couple of times before you start working on the knife that you spent a considerable amount of time making.
 
eric brinkerhoff said:
Thanks you guys! That's about what I expected. It's not like I've never primed anything ,or "annealed" anything. Just wanted to talk about it some and get a confidence booster!
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You intend to leave it like a mushroom or you will grind it ? If you grind after you peen tang ,i suggest you to take some time and work little on opening on pommel . Make small taper all around so you have nice rectangular shape after grinding ?
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Did you stack and glue the leather but not anneal the tang yet or am I getting you wrong?
 
No I haven't glued the stacked leather yet! I've had it on and off quite a few times what I do is wrap it tightly with tape and pull the whole chunk off at once! I'm going to have to disassemble it one more time !
 
You gotta peen it like you mean it. Here's how I do it.

Anneal the tang well, I fill a coffee can with sand and water, that let's me position the tang at the angle I want while using the torch and I can reposition it without adjusting a vise.

An 1/8 of an inch will be way too long in my opinion, I leave .04" max exposed.

Find the absolute smallest hammer you can find. You're using taps, not strikes. I use around a 4oz ball pein hammer.

You can see in the video and the pic below that I start by peening a channel down the center of the tang to start the initial spread. Think of the steel like clay and how you want to spread it out.
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I use a few different punches to spread things out.
IMG_20190828_133807_839.jpg

The best tool to lay the edges down is an old antennae, the kind with a ball on the end. You cam hold the antennae, position the ball and tap it with a hammer around the edge to lay things down. Sorry, no picture of that.

That's a quick overview of how I do it, here are some of the reults.
IMG_20190629_071023_312.jpg

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If you are questioning your sanity while doing it, then you're on the right track. Wear ear muffs while you tap orb you'll go nuts around the billionth tap.

I once used a shot timer to count the taps on some square pins that I peened through a handle, it measured over 13,000.
 
I knew you had this info somewhere John Redmeadow Knives Redmeadow Knives . The best summary on the subject IMHO and I sure could of used it a few days ago myself to keep me on tap. Thanks. Bookmarking this one now! :thumbsup:
 
Ouch, forgetting to torch the tang before putting the handle on is such a pain!! I think dipping it in water as suggested is the best thing to do. At least with that type of steel it's a little less tricky to soften!

Working with stainless/air hardening steels, what I do is heat it up to dull red for 2-3 minutes with a torch and then quench in water once black. So far this has worked for me with 3v, Z-Wear, and Magnacut, so I assume it works with any of the air hardening class of steels. I tried doing threads and screwing onto the tang, but I just prefer the more traditional peened look.
 
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