modifying a hammer

[Minion]

At the moment I am without a cross pien hammer so I though rather then spending the money first I would attempt to make my own of an old sledge hammer, My only issue is when i took a course the teacher used an OA torch on the eye for the final hardening. That is my problem I dont have one so how would i go about doing this? also is it an oil or water quench for this metal.


Thanks in advance

[monstermetal]

At the moment I am without a cross pien hammer so I though rather then spending the money first I would attempt to make my own of an old sledge hammer, My only issue is when i took a course the teacher used an OA torch on the eye for the final hardening. That is my problem I dont have one so how would i go about doing this? also is it an oil or water quench for this metal.


Thanks in advance

I dont know what production hammers are typically made from, but my guess is a water quench would be way to hard on it and likely cause it to crack/fracture. Oil would be my bet... If you have a forge I would just bring the whole thing up to non magnetic and quench it.. Anneal it in an oven... check how hard it is with a file... It would be better for the leave the eye part a little soft, which should happen because more mass at the heart of the hammer...

[ThomasPowers]

Annealing is to make it as soft as it can get. I believe he wanted to use the term "Temper" it in an oven. And I would suggest that after you temper to the face colour, you then go back and re-temper it from the eye by dropping in a hot chunk of steel so the eye area is softer than the faces.

Since you don't give us any clue about what skills or tools you do have---save for not having a torch---it's hard to help you

If you don't have a forge a hole in the ground with a piece of blackpipe and a blow dryer and some real lump charcoal will work for heating a hammer head to critical temp. You will need some way to handle the *HOT* piece and keep your hands/self AWAY from the flaming oil as you quench in it.

[Minion]

Thanks for the replies I do have a forge, I took a class at NAIT with Shawn Cunningham. In that class we made a hammer but it was pre shaped, the only thing we had to do was widen the eye and round the face, anyway that tongs and a punch.

I don't know the metal that was used then but when we had the hammers at non magnetic with put the faces in water and would rotate when the water evaporated on the opposite face, we then used the OA torch on the eye till we saw a brownish purple starting to appear on the face then quenched it again.


I just didn't know how I would go about it without the OA

[Rob Browne]

Try hardening it as normal but use oil, its gentler on the metal. Make up a long length of mild to fit in the hole or use the drift you finished the hole with then heat it up to yellow and shove it into the hole. Watch the colours migrate through the hammer and quench when its right. No need for OA at all, a forge can do it all.

Cheers

[Minion]

All right Ill give that a try thanks to all for the help.




Erich

[Ed Steinkirchner]

i like winter hammer making because the way i harden them is to heat to non-magnetic and use an icicle to cool the center of the face, the way i figure it, the center of the face can hardly be too hard.

[Minion]

finally got around the finishing the hammer, I made the handle from walnut not sure how that will hold up

[monstermetal]

Well as far as looks go for a first hammer mod I would say you scored pretty high... looks great. Does it seem to be hard enough? not leaving dents in the hammer head when you strike a chisel or what not?

[Toreus]

I'm thinking of doing the very same thing myself- haven't found a good crosspeen hammer locally here in Canada.

The flat side looks a fair bit heavier than the peen side- how's the balance?

Cheers,

T.

[ThomasPowers]

Peen looks way to thin for my taste; but the advantage of making your own tools is to make them to suit yourself!

[bruce wilcock]

if you only have one hammer to harden and temper , fill a bucket with water ,stand it under a tap or hose pipe get your tool to hardning temp hold it by the eye with streght tongs ,set the tap running dump one face in the water with the water running over the other face continue untill the face stays wet and steams dry .rub the faces with a sand stone and there will be plenty of heat left in the eye section to draw the temper in the faces then cool out ,thats the way we did masons hammers after dressing the faces .

[arftist]

If you need a decent crosspein, a Craftsman blacksmith hammer is a good start for under thirty dollars. Cut a couple inches off the handle, round and pollish the face a bit, grind the pein down so it is a larger radius and ease the edges of the pein.