Make a Simple Peening Bench from Offcuts of Timber

Peening Bench made from Offcuts

A Peening Bench or Peening Pony

 Before you begin peening, you need to mount your peening jig or anvil.

There are many ways of doing this, from a purpose built peening bench to mounting the anvil / jig in large log.

Here is how we make a simple peening bench (or peening pony) from offcuts of wood from other projects.

A Simple Peening Bench

Dimensions of timber I used are in the table below. These can be substituted with what you have available. If buying timber the seat and front legs could be cut from a length of 6″x2″, while the back legs, side rails could be cut from a length of 4″x2″.
The size of the bench can be adjusted to your height / leg length.
Ways to change measurements of parts to suit your needs are included in the instructions below.

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Parts

Materials

Seat

6″x2″ timber. Length 20 inches

Back Legs (x2)

5″x2″ timber.  I used 2 lengths of 16 inches

Spacer between back legs

6″x2″ timber. Length – 6″ (or the same as the width of the seat)

Side Rails (x2)

4″x2″ timber.  I used 2 lengths of 15 inches.

Front Leg (x1)

6″x2″ timber,  I used one 14 inch length.

Mounting block for anvil / jig

Offcut of 4″x4″ timber or similar

Top – Seat piece and back leg spacer.
Left – Front leg.
Center – Side Rails x 2.
Right – Back Legs x2

Measure out and cut all the pieces for the bench

The seat length should allow the user to sit in comfort with the knees next to the peening block. I used a 20″ length of 6″x2″, taller people will require a longer seat.

The length of the side rail is the length of the seat minus the width of the back leg.

The height of the bench is calculated such that the user knees are level with the working surface of the anvil when seated on the bench. This means the knees can be used to support the blade whilst peening.

I wanted this bench to be 16 inches high so I cut the two back legs to a length of 16 inches. The front leg is 14 inches long – final height of bench (16 inches) minus the depth of seat ( 2 inches)

Calculating the length of the side rail

How the side rails and back legs attach to the seat

Assemble the bench

Attach first back leg and side rail to seat

Attach second back leg and side rail to seat. Attach spacer block between the back legs.

Position and attach front leg.

The front leg is positioned such that it will be directly beneath the anvil on the finished bench. The force of hammering is then transfered directly down the leg

Add two additional nails down through seat of bench into the front leg

Attach block into which the anvil / jig will be mounted. The size of this block may need to be adjusted to take into account the thickness of your leg.

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Mount peening jig or anvil

Drill a pilot hole into the block. The mounting pillar of the jig I am using is quite narrow. A larger hole will be needed for the standard peening jigs found in the UK
Hammer the jig or anvil into the hole. Use a piece of wood on top of the anvil / jig to protect it’s surface
A Handy nail to hold the spare peening capIf your bench is for use with a jig, it can be useful to hammer in an extra nail as a safe place to keep the second peening cap.

 

More information of peening can be found on the

Peening and Sharpening Resources page.