I have not been able to forge much the last few weeks as I suffered a repetitive motion injury to my hammer arm because i was not taking time to let myself recover between forging sessions, and that takes time to heal(i have had the doctor already) if I dont want problems cropping up or worse hurting it more. I have been binge-watching Forged in Fire well hand polishing.

I get the comments Ben Abbott makes about smiths not using the Peen on a cross peen hammer, which is also used to deform and shape steel just as the face of the hammer is, but instead of deforming it a little in all directions, it deforms it in two directions and can be used to Elongate your bar/billet or widen it without losing to much thickness, its also helps with tapering. i used this end a LOT to make my tangs after I forge a shoulder to make my tang. I use the Peen of a ball peen hammer to create flat rivets to attach my handle scales. As pin holds with the glue, but a rivet is forever. i feel whenever we get an update to the book it should cover use of the peens.

how i set my flat rivits: first off you want to be VERY careful doing this as it takes a bit of practice, and you can crack brittle material doing this. This with  How I do my rivets After I get my scales attached I take two days to do it(with the epoxy i use as i hate 5 min epoxy) by pitting one scale on, epoxy it, and once the epoxy has set i drill the hole to the size of the pin stock, then put the other scale on the next day i drill from the other side. once that is done, i will go one bit size up and drill about a quarter of the way through my scale using the depth setting. then i cut my rivets I tend to cut them too big i try to have about 1/8thish of an inch on each side for peeing using the peen of a ball peen hammer but I think i end u then i peen the ends on my anvil once the hole is filled...stop peening and go grind smooth...however i recently on the last blade I hilted started forming one head of the rivet first before i put it in, that way i dont have to peen both ends, however, I screwed that one up a bit(and am not rehilting it because i am not removing the 20$ camel bone scales as they cracked a little) which is why i say BE Very Careful when doing this on brittle material if you want to do this. Note: i am not sure how well it works because i also...messed up and drilled a new hole in the handle and that may have weakened the material to cracking point. i will share a pic if you want me to

Side note 2: Some are likely thinking the Japanese use a pin. The Craft of the Japanese sword translates the Makugi as a tapering bamboo rivet, and the Makugi hole is actually full size on one side of the blade but quite a bit smaller on the other and compression fitted in place.

side note 3: i also dont get why smiths use what has to be a seven pound a massive rounding hammer on the show over a 

=-*a/