Old timer at my first forge told me to use a cross peen wrong for years

Honestly, I worked under this old guy named Frank at a shop in Nashville for about 4 years. He swore that you should always strike with the cross peen parallel to the anvil face when drawing out. I just followed his lead like a dummy. Last month I went to a hammer-in event in Knoxville and a guy there named Dave showed me that you actually want the peen at a slight angle to move metal faster. Tried it on a set of leaves I was making and cut my hammer time by like half. Frank was a good smith but I think he just learned one way and never questioned it. Has anyone else had a mentor give them straight up bad advice that took forever to unlearn?

2 comments

2 Comments

riverm4822d ago

Did you read that recent Anvilfire article about peen angles? It had a whole breakdown of how different positions change the grain flow.

gonzalez.grant21d ago

Hold on, @riverm48, they measured grain flow changes down to the tenth of a degree?