hammer temper

[Paul.]

have just finished a diagonal peen hammer and would like any tips for hardening. So far I have drawn a temper on face and peen to a light purple But feel this face could be harder. Will it 'case' harden with prolonged use?
would appreciate any comments thanks paul.

[Rich Hale]

What kind of steel is it and have you hardened it yet? Tempering is takeing away a bit of the hardness that was acheived by hardening so it will not be brittle. Different kinds of steel need different kinds of heat treat,, Could help more if I knew more about your material.

[philip in china]

Mail me at philipgreening@gmail.com and I will send you a doc on the subject

[ThomasPowers]

Case hardening, immersing it in high carbon materials at high temps for a length of time---sounds like you mean work hardening it and no it won't do a good job of hardening the face (either one).

With out knowing the details of what alloy and how the heat treat was done it's hard to guess what would help.

[Paul.]

yes, sorry i did mean work harening! but like you say, ThomasPowers, this is the wrong road.
The hammer is actually an old lump hammer which i have reshaped, so difficult to give exact details of steel.
Before tempering, the whole head was heated to a cherry red then after quenching face and peen I Polished a spot on face and peen edge and at desired colour quenched whole head . Am i being impatient ? should repeat this process until i get desired result ?

[Tald the dead]

I honestly like a soft hammer, but hey thats just me! Rather resurface a hammer than an anvil. I wouldn't worry all to much about it. Use it and if you think it needs to be harder/softer, then treat it as so.
Good Luck!

[markh]

I like it. It's a nice hammer.

[ThomasPowers]

So reheat/quench and draw to a dark straw this time and see if that's a good hardness for your hammer. Standard procedure for unknow "junkyard" steels; though we often suggest you try it hard first as you can then re-temper softer without doing the whole redhot heat/quench.

Better soft and forgiving that a load of poorly bound shrapnel though!

[Paul.]

yeah thanks for the input everyone. Starting to think maybe jumping the gun a bit! after using hammer a bit am getting used to the 'softness' and actually quite like it. Think i might make a few more and experiment a bit with my hardening technique.