Hand Hammers

I thought I would make a thread to share the hammers I make, I will post more as I make more! some are for my own use and some are personalized

Hi all, First of all, I know it is probably easier and less time consuming to buy pre-made handles, however, since I like to do any type of crafting as a hobby, I'd like to make my own wooden handles for hammers and top-tools. Now I unfortunately have a problem, I cant find wood suitable foe hammer handles. I know hickory is favorable, but I found virtually no supply of unworked hickory in the Netherlands. I then though Ash, but I am having trouble sourcing that, most people sell oven dried ash for use in the fireplace, is that suitable for handles? Hardware stores nearby only seem to sell fir and oak wood. So how and where do you source wood for …

Hey guys, hope your holidays were great! Sorry for going dark for a while there. The Wife and I bought a new house last summer, so most of my time has been consumed with projects outside of blacksmithing. So I won't bother you with the details. I have yet to set up the smithy on the new property, but don't think I have not been working towards it. Yesterday I ventured up to Portland to visit Andrew of Portland Ironworks at his shop for a private lesson on tool making. Where he shared some insights to his process and techniques on some of the machines. We set out to make the hand tools necessary for making hand tools for use at the anvil independently and w…

Just finished up this straight peen. Its made from the cap of a rr track. I cut a slab of track about 1.5" thick, then cut the cap from the webbing. The cap was turned into a hammer, and the webbing/foot I upset to about an inch thick and it is becoming a little stake anvil. Spark test definitely showed good carbon content and it quenched fairly well in motor oil. File test still bit, but could definitely tell it hardened up. Probably could have went with water given its mass, but I'd rather have a hammer that is a touch soft, than one that is cracked lol. I tempered to a golden color on the face and peen, heating up the eye first. Given that the file still bit after the …

does anyone have any experience with the new Czech hammer from blacksmith depot? i just bought one i thought heck it was $15 why not. Son

My brother in law wants to give me a nice piece of metal for Xmas. I settled on 4340 because when I'm good enough to use good metal I want my first project to be a hammer head. I would be looking to do a 1.5lbs-2lbs head but where ever I go to buy they want me to order a foot long minimum costing closer to $300. Realistically spending more than 60usd on the high end is too much money for that family. If 4340 is just going to be too expensive what would a good alternative be? Sorry if this is a repeat. Thanks for reading anyways.

Hi all. I have a Hofi Hammer that Uri signed on both sides of the handle. Any tips on how I could protect that portion of the handle so that I can still see the signatures without wearing them off or giving myself blisters? So far, it doesn't seem like I hold that part of the handle much, but I'm concerned that basing my hand location on preserving aesthetics won't end well for me; I'm currently receiving PT for tennis elbow and I want to proceed with caution.

I have several 3/4” x 8” wrought iron, round bars. I’ve cleaned the paint off and will be soaking them in some rust remover I bought at tractor supply. If forget the name. I plan to more or less attempt to copy one Jennifer has done. What should my next step be, forge the round bars to square?

Started this hammer few years back (9/3-9/4/2018).. I got it forged into a preform and then was not interested in the pattern.. So put it on the back burner until I had a design in mind and this was just last weekend while at the Hardwick Fair. Used 1.125" wrought iron Sq bars from the Longfellow bridge in Boston, MA 4 pieces and 2 pieces of 5160 for the peen and face. It's not perfect.. Because the hammer was supposed to be a different design the preform interfered with where I took it to.. It's ready for hardening now..

When I was starting out as a teenage smith, I had a hammer like this one. I used it as a big rounding hanger for heavy smashing jobs, but it was one of the tools that got left behind when I left New England in ‘92. This one was in a bin of hammers I got at the industrial surplus place yesterday. It’s very similar to my old one, although possibly a hair smaller and with the enlarged face on only one side rather than both. Anyone ever seen a hammer like this and can give me an idea about what it might have originally been for?

Using YK30, is it possible to reach 55 ~ 58 HRC with 2 cycles at 220°C by only extending each cycle time? No, I am not crazy. Long story short: here in Taiwan is almost impossible to find AISI 1060 or similar. Well, you do have options actually, but nothing that could be handle with a simple coke forge and a home oven. I live in a rural area and the only thing I can get here is Daido YK30. Daido says it's similar to O2, tho I dont know what did they smoke because it looks pretty different to me. I can't refer at O2 sheets for heat treatment... I have to choose between 1045 and YK30. I already had experience with 1045 and meanwhile I found it ve…

Hello all! I reached a milestone today in my blacksmithing career- my first hammer. Made from 1045, about 1.5 square, 3 inches long. I forged to shape on my press, then normalized twice. I have yet to grind, harden or temper, but I would love some feedback on how I did! The eye is about 10 degrees off of square, but I'll keep practicing!

I've never seen this type of hammer before and wondered what would it be used for. Any help would be appreciated.

My lovely wife left me for the weekend and I wanted to make a lining hammer so I started with a piece of 1” 1045. I bought this and some 4140 from the ebays, my first known steel. Moved pretty much like what I expected medium carbon to do, RR clips and such... used my new S7 punch made from a pharmaceutical pill punch I bought from Larry Z. Worked a treat used a couple different coil spring drifts to get to my new jack hammer bit hammer eye drift. Drift is a bit long used my guillotine and a lot of heats! as forged. Spent about 6 hours and did a bunch of other stuff including an S7 chisel and drift. Super happy so f…

Good evening folks, I'm still fairly new to forging and don't have very large equipment or tooling at the moment; however, I'm interested in trying my hand at making a hammer. I understand that a full sized hammer is likely out of reach, but I was wondering if making some miniature hammers would be good to try as practice? We have a thick piece of 1" thick 4" wide by roughly 6". I've cut off a piece of 1" square by 4" long. I was thinking of using some coil spring tools to try to make a hammer. The piece only weighs about 10 ounces so it will likely just be used as a chipping hammer. Thoughts?

Been buying up loads of different styles and weights of hammers, for forging that is. My instructor insisited on a very large hammer and found that "not so large" hammers work as well. Especially with lighter weight stock. But they are generally sold w/broken or weak handles. The local blacksmith supply sells handles for 2.49 (compared to the local Ace hardware for 8.99). Nice big Hickory handles, too! I can't seem to keep the handles tight, the head from slipping/working off. I found that the use of a carbide burr, used to enlarge the bottom of the hammer hole, will match up with the taper of the handle. Makes sense to me........ I also can't get that w…

Started with 1” round 4140. Quenched in veggie oil, 2 x 1 hours in the toaster oven at 475. Not perfect but I am super happy and cant wait to make a bigger one thanks for looking

The cross pein hammer, aka blacksmiths hammer is very handy, but sometimes a straight pein is better for a certain job. Needing a straight pein in a hurry one day, I took an engineers hammer, left the handle intact, locked the head in a vice, and using a hand held grinder with a cutoff wheel, cut the head to the shape of a straight pein. I cut carefully, to not raise the temperature enough that it would "lose its temper" i.e. need to be rehardened and tempered. I then finished shaping the head on a belt sander, giving me a usable tool, far faster than making one from scratch.

This material and discussion was split from another thread.

I made this as a gift for my father, it's a hammer used for shaping shallow bowls/dishes out of sheet metal in jewelry work. O1 head, Tasmanian blackwood handle.

I want to make my own hammer and anvil so I was wondering if I need to use high carbon steel for both or does it really matter?

I bought an official Hofi Hammer this week. The forged, not cast one. I’m still an amateur, but I always wanted to try one and he’s getting up there in age. Also they seem to hold their value. It’s beautiful,. But my one complaint, is the face isn’t really dressed. Now I now that blacksmiths prefer to dress their own hammer faces to suit their own needs but I was looking forward to getting one professionally dressed. Mainly because I now would have a standard of a properly dressed crosspein hammer. Now the edges aren’t too sharp so maybe this is how a Hofi hammer is supposed to be. Just wondering if this is how Hofi the hammers are supposed to be. Thanks

Hello all, any assistance would be much appreciated. I only have/use a few hammers routinely, and one I am quite interested in trying is the angle peen. I am left handed, so I'm looking for a left handed angle peen hammer. I would like it to be at ~2.5 pounds, but no heavier. Any suggestions? Searches on the internet (which I am not so good at) only show a couple options. Not too uncommon for us goofy left handed folk but I thought maybe I would ask the team for some references. I do not need super fancy, most expensive, pay for the name hammers, but I do enjoy quality over savings, if that makes sense. Where I live there are no longer the "Estate Sal…

So this is the third time this year I've snapped this hammer's handle. I'm very much a weekend forger, and the longest time I've had between snappage was probably about 10 forging sessions of a few hours each. It's my favorite hammer head at the 16oz size so I'd like to get this right. I'm gonna give you all the details if any of you feel inclined to post-mortem where I went astray. First break: For the handle, I took a concrete tamper and cut a chunk off the handle. It was labeled as and ash handle, but who knows. I cut a slot for a wooden wedge on the band saw, drove a wooden wedge and a metal wedge in. I've made all my own wooden wedges using shim scrap and a pa…

I found this hammer head with a metal detector many years ago at homesite that’d burned in the 19th century. Seems to be cast and has lots of corrosion pits, included big one on the main face. Sides are chamfered, and the smaller face is not parallel to the bigger one. Not sure it’s mounted right side up or not on this handle. Is there a name for this hammer type? Would it have any use with a dished face? Thank you