imagedude

Is it made by Brooks or Brookes? Are there any patent numbers on it?

The link below suggests that Brooks of Oldbury were making planishing hammers in the 1930s http://www.gracesgui...rookes_(Oldbury) Click on the link then click again on the 'search for page title' link

~All the planishing hammers that I have seen have been pneumatic. I have seen mechanical shaping hammers but these seem to use either a rubber block or a sandbag instead of a lower anvil. Do you have any photos of the lower dies?

It can work well but you need to work fast. Size 5 or 6 presses seem to offer the best combination of speed and power.

The hole doesn't have a purpose, it was used to hold the anvil during its manufacture.

Keep the banana well oiled to reduce the number of sudden violent hits!

As far as I can tell from the photo your hammer has a similar banana shaped linkage as the Blacker. The further the linkage slides away from the pivot point the greater the amount of travel the hammer has. Your hammer uses leaf springs while the Blacker uses coil springs but essentially the principle is the same. http://www.nevillebarnes.co.uk/hammer.htm

Yes they are and watch my lips, that hammer uses the same sliding linkage.

An interesting looking hammer, it uses a similar sliding linkage to a Blacker.

I believe that there is a company in Italy that still makes mech hammers though they may be importing them from elsewhere. I use a mechanical hammer because I'm not prepared to wait for an air hammer to warm up, I also prefer arc over mig due to versatility, simplicity and improved quality of weld.

Here's Ric Furrer's twister on Youtube:

That induction furnace looks like fun, how long does it take to heat a 1" square bar?