Welcome aboard, Teresa! As Ben said, no such thing as just a girl - no rules of thumb around here and we'll even let you drive late at night (from one of my favorite No Doubt songs
). The planishing hammer will come in handy, but, really, all it does is save time once you get to that point.......everything can be done by hand and a bit of practice and experience with the handwork will help you understand just what the machine is doing and maybe make a bit more clear what the machine needs to be doing.