Steve Sells,
My reasoning for the one piece construction is that the amount of force needed to break some of the rocks puts a lot of stress onto the hammer. The wooden handles tend to break at the bottom of the head since that is what accommodates the stress, whereas if the handle and head are all one piece the stress is absorbed and distributed down the handle rather than being concentrated at the connection of the handle and the head. I hope that makes sense. It does take A LOT of damage before the wooden handles snap, especially if they are made and finished well and are not being treated carelessly, but I would rather try and forge everything as one piece if I can. I am still in the planning stages of how I can exactly pull this off, but I am sure it can be done without welding.
Thanks Irondragon, I'll read through this so I don't become an annoyance.