Drifting Ball peen hammers for hawks?

[KYBOY]

Id it just me or are these stupid hammers as rough to drift for you as they are for me? Ive made several ball peen hammer hawks lately and they have wore me out Ive been buying good quaility hammers from the flea markets. The ones Im getting are some sort of alloy steel I think, maybe 4140 or these abouts. Every bit as hard to forge as 5160:rolleyes: I made a smaller "starter" drift but Im still wearing out my main drift to fast. Am I missing some trick? I get the hammer a good yellow but they are still tough as heck.

[ThomasPowers]

I use structural steel bull pins as drifts. They seem to last fairly well even with student's pounding on them.

[weldervaughn]

make sure to use plenty of lube on your drift, this makes drifting alot faster and easier

[pkrankow]

What should be used for punch lube? Is powdered lump charcoal without something like mill scale adequate? Would powdered briquette work well for a punch lube? What other common, effective, inexpensive lubes are there?

Phil

[bigfootnampa]

I've just been swishing my punches through my coal bucket... I have been meaning to try some anti-spatter dip from the welding shop though. Hofi uses moly-graphite for lube.

[MattBower]

I also use a bull pin drift. (I find that a 1.25" bull pin driven not quite all the way in is about right.) I use moly-graphite lube based on Hofi's, and a decent sized sledge. Even with all that it takes me several heats.