I acquired a janbiya / jambiya dagger blade recently, but it came without a hilt. I have shaped a grip and pommel out of oak, but I prefer a steel guard, so I bought a mild steel guard blank from Albion. As you can see from the attached photos, the hole in the guard needs to be reshaped.

I plan to reshape it with a ball peen hammer and chisel, but I'm not sure how heavy a hammer I'll need to reshape this (relatively) quickly, and if I go to the local hardware store and start banging away with various hammers, I think they'll complain. :p Any suggestions? (I think a 16-ounce hammer would do the job, but I'd like to get the right weight from the start.)

After that, I want to secure the tang temporarily so I can check the balance while I do some test cutting. I plan to use a very small cobalt drill bit to drill three holes through the top of the grip, through the tang, and out the opposite side of the grip, then secure it with nails, hammered over on either side, to hold it in place temporarily. Is this a stupid idea?

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Hi Carl,
If you need to make the hole broader and shorter, to fit the tang, I would advice filing - it could look painstaking, but at the end it would be faster, cleaner, and you don´t risk cracking your guard. Just broaden the hole at the exact length to fit the tang, and you don´t need to care about the rest. You could also add small steel wedges to secure it on both sides.
If you do it right, you don´t need to bother about securing it temporarily to the tang while checking the balance - the whole piece will just hold together. Alternatively, you could still secure it faster with small wedges.

good luck:) and let us know about the result!