I just epoxied them in and never had a problem - unless I tried peening them. If you peen the pins with wood or bone scales it's very easy to break the scales.
Thanks Valkman. Nice site by the way. That is an unfortunate truth. Some of the kits I started with are folders with pins for the blade pivots and frame structure. It may be that I'm not hitting them hard enough on the right surface...still learning. What usually happens is I mark up the bolster or crack the handle material. It's the darn pivot pin that's crucial. I could epoxy the rest (well except for the tension spine) but it seems like a skill that would be good to have.
I've had real good knifemakers tell me they never peen pins, so it's not a skill that's really needed on fixed blades. Today's epoxies will hold a knife together through just about anything. On folders I have no idea - the couple I have taken apart and re-"peened" were never right after.
Peening pins I have had good sucess with nickle silver pins on some handle material as they are a lot softer and easer to peen them .Hope this will help you
Pin material Sounds good. I like crafting the fixed blade handles but if I plan to make or refurbish folders I will need to get in the practice. Thanks for the info.
I have never been able to peen brass pins in a slab handle. I have peened a stick tang using a washer type handle. It seems that the steel stick tang would be harder, but not in my experience. I think, maybe it's because slabs are typically thinner and more prone to damage. I would go Valkman's route and epoxy, pin, and then sand flush.
one way to do brass is to heat it to make soft just use vice grips to anneal the pins over a very hot fire of some kind . and let cool slowly
Thanks for all the great info guys. I'm not giving up on peening but for now I think I'll stick with epoxy,pins and screws (just bought several tap kits). Right now I've got a couple of projects going...a scrap metal blade grind, a couple of kitchen knife handle treatments and a 5foot broadsword of red oak that ive been working on for awhile. Sometimes this seems like more than just a hobby!
