MilwaukeeJon

Only here would one encounter the phrase “a three smith scrap pile”!

Made my best Homer Simpson noise yesterday upon completing a nice little forged Japanese style hammer with a beautiful handcrafted oak handle. The thing was all heat treated and tempered and oiled up ready to be presented to an artist friend when I noticed that there were some accretions on the polished face. Figured I could rub them out but they turned out to be pitting, which baffled me. Got me curious about how this could happen so I whacked a couple of nails just to see how hard the face had become after HT/tempering. Turns out it was not hard at all. File tests verified this as well. How could this be? Well, turns out that Mr. Brilliant here just crafted a gorgeous little hammer out of 1018 stock instead of the 1045 that was meant to be used! Softest hammer ever, although it might be good for mashing potatoes or killing slow crawling insects (no hard shelled beetles, however, because they would dent the surface). Oh well, live and learn... Anyone else have similar stories?

Seems that the harder the steel, the longer the shavings. Minor point to be sure....but kind of fun seeing this 120 year old machine work so well.

Read a lot online about working with 1095, which seems to be what many Nicholson files are made from. Ended up doing a three cycle normalization, then quenched the blade in heated canola oil, and then a 2 hour temper at 400 degrees. Sharpened up beautifully and careful sanding highlights the pattern nicely.

I did! Now how should I harden/temper the piece?

Reshaped an old flat bastard Nicholson (20-40 years old). And specific thoughts on heat treating/tempering?

Fascinating. Thanks for posting.

Did a heated safflower oil quench of the blade (1/2” or so). Here it is....fun little splitter:

Thanks Michael

Nifty move.... very nice

Whatever that is....very cool.

Beautiful. How do you do that crinkled decoration?

Great purchase....congrats!

Making a small ax/wedge to use when splitting wood for handles. From a rusted old ball peen hammer (pre-1950). Still have some polishing left to do although will leave in the black when done, not all shined up. Thoughts on the best heat treating approach?

The owner is in his early 70s and the hammer belonged to his grandfather. He also owned this nifty hammer:

This layout makes a lot of sense. Inefficient if you do a long handle (like I did) but very helpful way to think about the movement of metal in the head. Fun experiment. Thanks. Also, by “creasing of the peen end” I didn’t mean fish mouthing on the tip. I’m already a master of that! Rather it was a reference to the spot where the handle gets bent 90 degrees down. Your pics are a big help.

Here’s what it ended up looking like, 9 1/2” tall with a 3” long head.

An attempt at blacksmith humor....ignore.

And, can you drift hammers with it?

In my case the peen end creased. Would different layout cuts/angles create a better replication of the original?

In process....hard to avoid the crease (cold shut) where the handle folds down. Any thoughts on a different initial cut to avoid this?

Thomas, love to see a picture of that historically rich hammer.

Got this idea on the World Wide Interweb. Sort of a Brazeal profile but made from flat stock mid carbon (4140) measuring 1/4” x 1 1/2”. Rounded shaft in a swage block with no weld at joint. Filed in a very slightly tapered profile for setting the hot cut into a stump. No heat treating beyond 2 normalization cycles. Cuts beautifully....way better than the one I made from a RR spike!

I’m going to try it with one piece just for fun. Off and running....

If forging, would your beginning billet look like this?