Picked up two claw hammer heads for free. Besides re-handling them any other nifty tools I can reforge them into?

tomahawks ?

they make a good ADZ

Being that you are in Maryland, how about crab mallets.

One of the hardest parts of making any wood-handled tool is punching/drifting the eye hole in it. So if you start with a hammer head, you already have that eye hole.

I have made a number of small bowl adzes from claw hammer heads. I look for those with the square handle hole in the head (actually rectangular). That eye hole is usually also slightly tapered inside, so you can get something of a "wedge" fit with a wood handle.

I clip off the claws, and then forge the hammer end to the new shape. As I forge it, I also shift the whole mass of steel in front of the eye hole up so that it is in line with the top of the hammer head. This then allows me to create a gentle curve across the top of the new adze - to match the curve of the adze in use, without having to grind off a bunch of the eye hole area on top.

There are also people who use a claw hammer head in their modern sculptures. That claw hammer head can be made into a pretty good Bird's Head for a sculpture.

Mikey

Like jimbob said, they make a good adze. I made one recently to hew the sides of a chestnut stump for an anvil, to make it fit the hourglass shape of the footprint on top of the stump. This I did from memory of the old IFI blueprint that once existed for this.
A clawhammer has the rectangular eye which is what you want for an adze.
Lop off the claws, draw out the head, file the bevel on the inside of the blade while it is flat, sink to curve the blade and draw your colors. Voila- curved blade hand adze.
Oh ya, drive out the handle first and replace it when you are finished.

I like to keep the claws, but roll them to the head.

I been thinking of trying to forge weld the claws together, then draw them out to form either a drift punch, or hot cut tool.

Ain't tried it yet, but I been thinking about it.

Seeing those curled back claws makes me wonder if you could forge an animal head from one to make a nice top for a walking stick??

Saw a guy a while back who had made a donkey's head from one, he called it a jack hammer. No pictures of it, but maybe I can find one later today.

Saw a guy a while back who had made a donkey's head from one, he called it a jack hammer. No pictures of it, but maybe I can find one later today.

I`ve also done the same. Will get pics asap. What I did was bend the claws up , and then with my eye punch , punched 2 eyes

Hammerkid I would like to see a picture of the mule head, also the picture nick posted mad me think of a big horn sheep. Just twist the claws before curling them and that would make a nice cane head.

Hammerkid: Where do you find an eye punch?

Bill I made it, from a piece of 5/8" coil spring , let me get you a photo.

Thanks Chris. Like your Web site, especially shop dog Sparky!

Thanks Bill! Glad I could help if you need pics of the end of eye punch I`ll get em for ya .

Nick, your adze is so cute! i love it:)

Have seen claw hammers made into dragon heads too :-)

I saw a pic of a

claw hammer forged into a nice

Horse head. Can't

Find the pic.