Hand Hammers

In the upcoming knife chat Steve and I will show how to make a knife using a couple of methods. For the first part I will concentrate on using minimal shop equipment and keeping the cost as low as possible. First thing I did in preparation for this is buy a big box chain store two pound hammer. As purchased it is not usable for knfe making. Both faces were ground in an arch. That would work alright for drawing metal, Think of the shape of an anvil horn. For flattening out a blade it wouild create more finishing work as it would leave dents. First pic shows hammer untouched, I tested the steel with a file and i think it is about right for a hammer. A file could remove s…

I've been hammering for about 3 years - small tools and useful hardware things mostly. About 1 month ago I had the opportunity to participate in an iron smelt - that was a great experience. BUT . . . I was given a hammer to work with that was way heavier than any of my own. After about 7-10 minutes as a striker, my arm was "toast". Fortunately another fellow stepped in and finished the job. That lead me to my question: Is there a good description of good arm / body technique / stance that will prevent injury from repetitive actions? Are there execises that help build up strength in muscles,/ tendons/ ligaments when I'm not at the forge? I've…

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Many topics have been discussed before. In chasing down references posted on another thread, The cow pie analogy of hammer dressing by Shane Stegmeier February 6, 2008 showed up. As they say, pack a lunch and a cold drink, and do a little reading. The things you can learn by reading IForgeIron. (grin) The cow pie apology is very helpful to get people to understand how the steel moves under the hammer. Hit a cow pie with a stick: it divides along the line it was struck. Hit it with a brick: and the pie flys mainly away from the long sides of the brick, and less along the short sides, and only a little at the corners. Drop a square paverstone on it: and the …

This discussion has come up before. Let Uri Hofi tell the store in HIS OWN WORDS. September 5, 2011 (click the link below) BP1000b The REAL story about the Hofi Hammer - by Uri Hofi

I was gifted this hammer by a dear friend- it has a slice through the handle which is said to aide in flexibility, allowing your arm to rest more while working. thought it would be of interest!

Happy Sunday all, I’ve had this hammer head for a while, and finally took a closer look. I’ve never been sure if it is a straight peen, hot cut, or fuller. I took some white spakle paste and put it in all the noticeable text/symbols. One of them says something then:CAST, but the hammer is antique and looks forge.The peen and face are not perfectly in line with the eye, and the cheeks are uneven. Any idea as to the use, brand, age, symbol meanings, would be lovely. Thanks in advance! Asa

Howdy all, I’ve got a friend who is a geologist, and I just realized his birthday was yesterday. I’ve thought for a while that it would be fun/special to forge him a geologist hammer. I already checked the forum for previous posts on making one, and found a very cool design that I liked. I looked through my material, and found this. It is just about the right size, I don’t think the hammer will be very big. It is a pin from a tractor brush hog, and my dad says that is probably grade 8 steel. I have no idea what it is like to forge this pin. If y’all have any ideas as to what it might be and how hard it would be to forge, they are welcome, same goes for any other conc…

getting back into smithing and rebuilding my shop. Can someone suggest the best hammer material to use with a cutoff hardy? back in the day (circa 40 years ago) I used a brass mallet. Any thought would be appreciated.

While making a new handle for a small 3/4 pound cross peen I picked up at an antique store, I decided to re-profile my 3 lb & 2.5 lb cross peens with the octagonal shape. I know this has been talked about already in various other threads, but I'd be interested in hearing from guys who've tried the octagon shaped handles and liked them and from those that tried them and didn't like them. My initial thoughts are that I do seem to be able to grip the hammer better and with less effort. I think this will equate to less fatigue over hours of forging. They certainly don't feel slippery in the hand but I wonder about blisters forming where the hand comes into conta…

Not sure if this will be visible to those who aren't on Facebook, but here's a little video of a two-man sledgehammer in use somewhere in Scandinavia(?): https://www.facebook.com/reel/1259419712218495

I just ran across an ad from Warwood Tool offering a two-part epoxy for attaching hammer handles to their heads. Here are the specs: I don't know what the SIKA tape is for, but I suspect that might have something to do with how the fiberglass handle goes into the eye of the hammer. Here's a screenshot of the handle by itself: I know that Uri Hofi famously used Sikaflex-11 FC polyurethane adhesive sealant for attaching his hammer heads, but has anyone ever tried using anything like this epoxy?

Just curious what weight hammer you guys use for drifting hammer and axe drifts. I have just been using a 3lb hammer, but thinking something heavier would make life easier. I was looking at Bailey's hammers and he has a 7lb straight peen for this called the Piggy, and I am thinking something like that or in the 5-6lb range would make life easier. What do you guys think?

Saw this hammer on Youtube, and am curious who makes it, or perhaps its a custom design? I searched but couldn't find the logo. Thanks, B99

A local technical school closed down and they auctioned off everything. I bid on a few things, but only won one. With all these added to the hammers I already had I should not need to buy another hammer in my life. There are 2 Blue Point ball peins that are both marked 16oz, but one is definitely bigger and heavier than the other. Then their are the 2 identical "engineer's hammers" that look like rounding hammers to me. I looked up the model number and they are 2.25 lb. Wood handles will be had for those. There is also a brand new Vaughan 16oz claw hammer with a real nice wood handle. Anyone know where to get a handle like that? The chisels are all identical. A…

this is my biggest so far. its a 14 lbs postmall!

I have several hammers. They're all, however, cheap. I've modified all of them with an angle grinder and a cheap belt grinder; it isn't very powerful and steel barely gives off any sparks when grinding on it. Just yesterday I purchased an 1kg hammer, Tramontina brand (made in Brazil, considered to be ''better'' than budget brands) to then grind a ''Rounding hammer'' set of faces on it. While finishing up, I noticed that the Tramontina sparked quite a lot, even with little pressure put on the grinding belt. The other hammers give out little sparks, if any, even while applying lots of pressure, so a question arose: Why? Does that mean the Tramontina is properly tem…

Hi! After my first post one year ago in this forum, I would like to show the evolution of my (still non-professional) forging activity. I’m particularly enjoying forging hammers and axes. Check my website if you are interested so see more (-;

Hi, I need some advice, for fun I would like to make a slag chipping hammer welding with recycled materials such as a lorry crossbow stump or other suitable recycled material, can you kindly help me and advise me, thanks Tomahawk for welder

Hi I’ve been poking my nose in the old sledgehammer head market for a while now but only now that I’m taking a little break from forging have I actually been serious. I found this head and 30usd$ delivered sounded pretty good. My only reservation is it looks kinda like a masons hammer that you hammer on top of like a giant chisel meaning the face would be soft. Would heating it up and quenched ing it fix that problem??? im no expert and am wondering what you guys think? Is it a masonry hammer? also if anyone has a good recommendation for a place to buy old sledge hammer heads. Im not very picky along as there’s a hole going through a big old chunk of hard s…

I was recently asked to forge some chain, and I posted a pic of my progress... to which my sister, who lives in Rugby England, responded with some pictures of the Black Country Museum and one of the blacksmith shops there. In the photo there is a double handled sledge. I have heard of these... but I have never seen one in use... does anyone have a video or know more about them? I suspect that it is mostly lifted and dropped....or was it used with a master and apprentice one providing power and the other aiming... I don't know anything about it... figure someone here might... care to shed some light on the subject? Thanks Matt

Picked up these two hammers at auction. The guy had a lot of tools and blacksmithing stuff, but I don't have a clue what these are for. The first is just a head, and one end is crazy long compared to the other, along with a wedge shape, that's going to make it super heavy on one end. It is drifted for a handle. The second one has a roughly 1/2 semi circle groove made into the face. Looks like the previous owner peened the center area with a center punch for reasons unkown. So... What'd I get, and what are they for?

So I'm super amateur at all these skills. I've been in the craft for less then 4 months (cumulative time). I've just enjoyed challenging myself and trying to make usable tools. What you see here is a rail road track head (i guess you would call it, the thick portion that the train wheels would ride on) turned into a straight peen (so far my all time favorite style of hammer.) Please understand this was very much a project i committed myself to no matter what happens, seeing it through unless it catastrophically failed. So its uglier then the back side of a hyena. I've learned alot of lessons from this project I'm going to use moving forward. But ov…

I apologize if this is not the correct forum for this. I purchased a 35 pound sledge hammer this weekend. I never saw anything like this......just looking at it makes one's arms hurt just thinking about swinging it, really. Has anyone ever seen a sledge as big as this? Would anyone have any suggestions on what this monster would have been used for? The elderly fella I bought it from said he bought it at an auction many years ago. The auction was selling off many items from a lumber company that closed up. I suppose I could assume that it was used in the lumber industry........but for what.......who could swing it? The sledge head appears to be forged without any…

I actually dug this up 20 years ago while trenching around a barn foundation in southern Oregon. It's got a wonderful shape to it and I have often wondered what it was designed for. Perhaps someone here knows. As you can see, the Atha A -inside-a-horsehoe logo is stamped on the bottom on one side of the handle hole and 4 1/2 on the other. Weighing it on a digital scale, it comes up 4 pounds, 7.8 ounces, pretty darned close considering it might have lost a bit of mass over the century or more. what makes it unusual to me is the arch in the shape of the head, and the resulting angle of the two rounded faces. I am sure it was designed for some specific task, but have no idea…