Knapping hammers

[Frank Turley]

I lost track of an old acquaintance, Russ Young, who some years ago, did some research "back East" in the U.S. and shared these photos of what he termed "knapping hammers." They are all between 4" and 4 1/2" long. They were apparently used by professional knappers to make flintlock flints.

Any feedback or more information would be appreciated.

[Dogsoldat]

I guess you wouldn't have any idea whether the are soft iron,  copper or a copper alloy.  They certainly look interesting.

[Frank Turley]

They are of ferrous metal, probably wrought iron because of their age. Whether steel was laid in, is unknown.

[HWooldridge]

I've knapped a lot of flint points with nothing more than a deer antler and a hammer stone - but when flintlocks were king, people burned through flints like the English archers consumed arrows. The flint needed to be sharp and square so these types of tools were used to dress the stones. Depending on the rock's origin, you only get a few shots out of a flint before it needs changing.

[Dogsoldat]

Thanks Frank.

[Frosty]

You pique'd interested Frank so I did a quick Google search and did a little skimming. This link shows so many gun flint tools I'm thinking most anything goes. http://tinyurl.com/ohj276r

 

I've done some knapping but mostly obsidian, great blades but plain useless for striking sparks. Flint is darned hard to get to up here but I have chert a ways up the Glenn Hwy and I understand it'll strike sparks.

 

Frosty The Lucky.

[Frank Turley]

Frosty, Maybe anything goes on google. It looks like a misch masch, any period, any country, and some unrelated stuff. I'm sending another picture of two hammers. I remember that Russ was in the Eastern U.S., and he was zeroing in on Colonial and immediate post-Colonial material. He did visit museums where these tools were often mis-identified as kindling hatchets and lord knows what else. The small hammer is 4 1/4" long and the other two are 6 3/4" long. These were all made for slender eyed, wooden hafts. I suspect the ones I've pictured are region specific.

[mitch4ging]

Frank, a guy named Mark Miller has a web site and covers all sorts of tomahawks and like items. If you have not visited his site, you might check it out. Great resource
http://www.FURTRADETOMAHAWKS.COM/

Use the (three bar) drop down menu at the top left corner to view all the sub-topics. Under "fakes, mistakes and reproductions", some early tools are discussed that may be simular.

[Frosty]

Right you are Frank, Google sure is and it takes good filters to keep my brain from sinking into the quicksand of . . . stuff. I skimmed half a dozen sites before I found the one I posted. I posted the link because it had so many examples of gun flint knapping hammers amongst all the other knapping links.

 

I thought there were enough to get a decent feel for what the straight pein type were/are like. Most sizes seem to be in the 4" - 6"+ range. The hafts run a wide gammut too, from integrals to eyes to receive a whittled stick. I'm sure there were almost as many different ones as there were people using flint locks. A fort say might have a resident knapper keeping everybody in gun flints while explorers knapped their own.

 

Perhaps a wife or daughter would knap flints for her men folk at home in what passed for spare time. Many indian points were knapped by the women in camp and I'd be very surprised if the example wasn't followed.

 

All that said I can't comment on the specific hammers you posted except to say they fall squarely into common patterns so that must be a good serviceable form. There's a darned good reason the smithing hammers we use most often seem to be basically the same all over the world.

 

Frosty The Lucky.

[Geoff Keyes]

There also were small tools that a shooter kept in his kit.  I have seen ones that were single piece with a screwdriver on one end (for tightening the lock and other bits) a vent pick on the other, folded in the middle to make the hammer face (the pick and driver blade are at right angles), often these are brass, or brass faced (to avoid sparks).

 

Geoff

[Frank Turley]

mitch4ging et al., I contacted the above mentioned Mark Miller, and he gave me an lol. Said that he never heard of a spike tomahawk being used to knap flints. He said in the flintlock days, the manufacturers made flints by the thousands and they were shipped in large numbers. He didn't say how those flintlock flints were made, however. I'm still mulling this over. Why would a guy have in his possession a 4 inch long mini-hatchet?

[HWooldridge]

Frank,

People knapped flints by hand - it was a cottage industry like nail making. Women and kids, men who couldn't perform heavy work, etc.

Your small hatchets might have been intended as a toy for children. The safety nannies have only been around for the last 40 years or so - whole generations of kids grew up with pocket knives and belt axes.

Fun to find - nice collection.

Hollis

[ianinsa]

Hi Frank, that mini hatchet does it look Japanese? It might be for thinning out bonsai forests.... :)

 

Nice collection BTW.