Advise on a peening hammer

[Southbound1]

Hello,
I was wandering if a ( larger domed faced 1") chasing hammer would be better at penning than a smaller diameter peening hammer?

 

[eKretz]

Not in my opinion. The point of peening is to displace metal. The larger the radius on a peening hammer the more force it takes to displace metal - which is exactly what you don't want when peening a razor pin. Hard hits with a bigger radius will tend to push straight in on the pin, bulging it out inside the scales and probably leading to splitting the scales. Lighter hits with a smaller radius will displace the metal easier and tend to push it outward as much as downward, so less tendency to bulge the pin inside the scales.

It takes a little practice at hammer control to dial in clean, on-target hits with a small radius peening hammer but it's the way to go IMO.

 

[Legion]

^What he said. Lighter is better.

 

[dundak]

You don't want a peening hammer for pinning. You want a small riveting hammer with a flat face. YMMV

 

[mrlandpirate]

chasing hammer, I use this, like others have said many light taps not hard ones. some people use a heavy - ish stainless teaspoon if you don't want to buy a hammer.
face needs to be mirror polished or it will transfer marks to the pin

 

[joamo]

HF Watchmaker Hammer

 

[John Rose]

What about using something like a nail set?

Cupped or flat, or a punch, whichever is best.

 

[bberg100]

HF Watchmaker Hammer

This. Only a couple bucks.

 

[joamo]

I use the ball head, polish it up some and use some Teflon plumbers tape to keep it from getting loose.

 

[eKretz]

Here's mine, I believe it's a 4 oz.:

 

[stone and strop]

Here's mine, I believe it's a 4 oz.:

View attachment 951959

Identical to mine except mine is not named Eric

 

[RumpleBearskin]

I bought a cheap set of 1 oz., 2 oz., and 4 oz. ball peen hammers from Amazon for around $10. 1oz feels like a toy. 4oz feels like I could mess up fairly quickly. 2oz keeps me in the "lotsa light taps" zone.

 

[Southbound1]

View attachment 951881 chasing hammer, I use this, like others have said many light taps not hard ones. some people use a heavy - ish stainless teaspoon if you don't want to buy a hammer.
face needs to be mirror polished or it will transfer marks to the pin

That is exactly what I was looking at . This one in the product description says its head weight is 3.2 oz. Is yours Domed?

 

[mrlandpirate]

That is exactly what I was looking at . This one in the product description says its head weight is 3.2 oz. Is yours Domed?View attachment 951986

ya that looks like it , it's light so you can tap tap tap a lot lightly.

 

[Southbound1]

ya that looks like it , it's light so you can tap tap tap a lot lightly.

Thanks! Those look like they have the best of both worlds. Large end and small end.

 

[mrlandpirate]

ya both sides are handy just don't pound nails with it ....LOL

 

[Ice-Man]

A spoon is your best friend tap tap tap and loads of em, the only trouble with 4oz hammers they bend the pins in the middle....

 

[eKretz]

Lol. Not if you control your applied force. I can hit just as lightly as you can with a spoon. And I have de-pinned many razors I've pinned. None of the pins were bent or bulged in the middle. The key is DON'T HIT TOO HARD! As I've already covered in my first post. Many light taps. NO hard ones. Hard hits are what bulge or bend the pins.

 

[Gamma]

Been using a 4oz typical ball peen hammer for a long while, works great, zero issues. I have a 3 oz all-metal type also, but it’s too light for me.

 

[bluesman 7]

4 oz. ball peen here.