Anyone know if peening was used on weapons?
I have never read anything about it being used.
YET
Peening was used from farms to craftsmen.. any time a edge had to be extremely strong resistant to turning and durable and ultrasharp.. it was peenend , even today blade edges for tools or equipment that need to be extra strong and sharp and which obsidion or ceramics are unsuitable for is peened.

Reason im asking is alot of spearheads are sold that are spring tempered so they are rather soft... this would be ineffective on bone and armor... but peening the edge solves that problem and leaves you with a head that wont snap, permenently deform or crack and shear off yet has the cutting ability of a far harder steel with little downside.

So before I go ahead and peen a long bladed hewing spear im getting I want to make sure there is no reason why it shouldnt be done on weapons.

You don't mean peening like a rivet is peened, hammering directly into the point/edge to make it blunt and mushroomed, right? I'm guessing you just mean hammer-hardening, hammering flat *along* the edge, simply to work-harden the metal.

I'm also a little confused because I didn't think "spring tempered" meant "soft", but I'm not a bladesmith.

In any case, bronze weapons frequently had hammer-hardened edges, but that's the only way to harden bronze. It can't be heat-hardened like steel. I suspect iron and steel weapons could also be hammer-hardened, though I don't have any evidence at my fingertips. As you say, it's common enough with some kinds of tools.

Matthew

Hi Trevor

This technique has always been used for metal tools from the earliest times of metal working. It is what allowed copper and bronze as well as iron tools hold more of an edge. It is not a way of compacting the material but rather a way to induce stress in the matrix of the metal. You are in essense making the piece more prone to ctacking or breaking.

The tool that has a soft body and a stressed edge can be quite effective but on a weapon where one will be encountering other metallic elements it may lead to chips or breaks in the edge but not failure of the body as it is soft and will bend.

One needs to realize that durability and hardness are two different qualities in a piece of metal and the compromise between the to is what the smith must achieve to create an effective weapon or tool.

Quote:

Reason im asking is alot of spearheads are sold that are spring tempered so they are rather soft... this would be ineffective on bone and armor... but peening the edge solves that problem and leaves you with a head that wont snap, permenently deform or crack and shear off yet has the cutting ability of a far harder steel with little downside.

I would suggest the above statement may not take into account the physical reality of the original items and their context. The modern maket, for sure, and our culture in general is a bit hardness centric in how we view the originals. In the period neither the armor or bone would prove much of an issue for a piece of well shaped "steel". I put steel in context of the period being a mix of qualities and attributes that do not aquate well to todays materials when compared side by side for how they would work and opperate. This can get to be a complex subject but I think it is at the heart of the question you pose.

IMHO In the interaction of combat and with the materials they had to work with one would see even items we consider to soft today having a decent effectiveness.

Best
Craig

http://www.scytheconnection.com/adp/docs/peening.html

Hammering an edge goes back eons. I have been rebuked by some in saying "no, it is just to straighten a blade" but the peening of an edge flat was introduced to me when working with scythe in the 1960s. of course, it depended on the type of blade scythe, as some were American and not the wafer thin blades found around the world.

Cheers

GC