The 1SR Peening Manual

It has been suggested that I publish my 14 page peening manual, so that it could be reviewed. Well it is copyrighted, and I consider it desktop published, and a lot of people have them now. So if you are reading this post, and you have read my manual, please comment on it below. I was going for "crystal clear" step-by-step instructions, accompanied by macro photos, and links to my YouTube videos that illustrate the motions. If you have read it, please let me know how I did.

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In 2006, I attended the International Scythe Symposium in Canada. Up until then, I had been using a peening jig. At the Symposium, I was blown away by what a freehand peened blade could do. There was no going back to a peening jig for me after that. I tried hard to learn how to peen at the Symposium. I was exposed to about 6 different methods, at the Symposium, and it boggled my mind for quite some time. I turned to a book in German on peening, called Dengeln by Bernhard Lehnert, for clarification. To my surprise it presented yet another method. From what I hear, Lehnert learned of his method from an old German text. I began to experiment with everything that I'd learned, and immediately realized how inadequate the Czech hammer and anvil I was using was. When Peter Vido imported some Picard anvils and hammers for me, I was in heaven. What a difference! After experimenting with all I had learned, I eventually synthesized all the best aspects into one method. It has some new elements that I wanted some peer review by, so I taught it to a couple of scyther friends, including Harvard educated engineer Keith Claverie in Tennessee. Keith was at the Symposium with me, and asked all the good technical questions of the instructors there, that I wouldn't have thought of on my own, probably, which added depth to my body of knowledge. I sent Keith a Picard hammer, and one of my antique Pennsylvania tall anvils (dengelstocks), and my peening instructions, and asked for his feedback. Keith promptly cut his thumb after testing the blade that he had peened following my instructions. "That's SHARP!", was his opinion.