it and any spring back effect that may exist therein by a process of plastic deformation when the ironing portion 61 39 of the ironing punch 61 has been separated from the work tube w as shown in fig9 the supply of hydraulic fluid to the fourth pressure chamber 48 through the hydraulic fluid passage 50 is stopped and hydraulic fluid is supplied to the second pressure chamber 27 through the hydraulic fluid passage 50 and thus the first piston member 6 is withdrawn to the right in the diagram accordingly the reducing die 60 which was to the left hand end position in the figure is withdrawn from the work tube w as shown in fig1 thus a work tube w with a reduced portion wr formed at its one end is made in this case as with the expanding operation which is described above the portion which has been altered in diameter is ironed by being squeezed between the die which originally altered its diameter and an ironing die and thus it is brought to the final desired dimensions while the stresses set up in it by the original deforming operation and any spring back effect that may exist therein are removed thereby pipe ends of reduced as well as expanded form of high accuracy can be produced although the present invention has been shown and described with reference to some preferred embodiments thereof it should be understood that various changes omissions and or alterations of the form and the content of any particular embodiment can be made by one skilled in the art without departing from the scope of the invention which it is therefore desired should be defined only by the appended.