Repousse' Hammer

[brianbrazealblacksmith]

Lyle (LDW) and I forged a fullering hammer yesterday from 3" of 1 3/8" round 4140. It was like making any other hammer, forged to finish, just alot smaller. I think we'll make some more of these to take to Tannehill.

[John B]

quote name='brianbrazealblacksmith' timestamp='1283517742' post='185376']
Lyle (LDW) and I forged a fullering hammer yesterday from 3" of 1 3/8" round 4140. It was like making any other hammer, forged to finish, just alot smaller. I think we'll make some more of these to take to Tannehill.

[oscar C]

good looking hammer brian.

[brianbrazealblacksmith]

Thanks guys.

John B, I made this hammer for a man that is going to be doing some leaves out of 1/8" copper. The hammer weighs 1.1 pounds. When I worked with Alfred Habermann he had us making many different hammers like these and some were longer like yours and curved if they were long like that. We were doing mostly steel ornaments cold after relaxing the material with some heat when it would work harden. He had us making all of our repousse' hammers out of 1 1/4" to 1 1/2" coil spring. We never made any out of 1" or under like you see here in the States. The main thing that Alfred would point out about making these and top tools was forging the "house" for the handle, drawing out the cheeks to give more support to the handle.

[bigfootnampa]

John I can't imagine how that curve would make any difference at all when leafing. I think that that style developed for raising bowls and other vessel shapes where it allows a bit better clearance when working on the inside edges... otherwise your hammer would foul the other side of the bowl on your upstrokes. Why not just make the hammer shorter then? because the handle would hit the edge when working near the bottom of the form.

[John B]

John I can't imagine how that curve would make any difference at all when leafing. I think that that style developed for raising bowls and other vessel shapes where it allows a bit better clearance when working on the inside edges... otherwise your hammer would foul the other side of the bowl on your upstrokes. Why not just make the hammer shorter then? because the handle would hit the edge when working near the bottom of the form.

Sorry, I am getting confused with terminology again, Heading was Repousse Hammer, and then the subject matter turned into fullering hammers,

This is what I understand to be a repousse hammer


The repousse hammer is used to strike the tools for producing the chase lines and forms in repousse work.

I also understand fullers to be tools that are used to produce grooves (as in horseshoes) or radiused tools that produce a fullering action to spread metal more quickly. Fullers are usually tools that are used either in pairs or struck to spread or form a groove on the workpiece.

Brians' hammer is what I would term a leafing or creasing hammer used to put the crimps or veins in water leafs, acanthus leafs or other similar applications, and would also be used in conjuction with leafing/veining/crimping stakes or lead block.

The leafing/doming hammers illustrated have been used on copper or steel up to 1/8" thick to produce water leafs, acanthus leafs and cupped acanthus leaf as well as other decorative repoussed work, they are also useful when making figurines etc.



This has clarified my problem with the tool recognition/definitions and may help others to sort out a tool's description and how it is used whatever it name it may be called by.

[brutaldeluxe]

it's "hot" repousse but do you now "cold" repousse ??(Louis 15 french style)

[John B]

it's "hot" repousse but do you now "cold" repousse ??(Louis 15 french style)

The figurines were done hot, but other leafwork is done cold and then either rivetted into place




or forge welded into situ as these



and many other situations and designs

[brutaldeluxe]

Beautiful work John !!!

[John B]

Not mine, they were made by one of our Guild's former students from courses he had attended

[Sam Thompson]

The centre piece in the bottom row looks very French!

[Bentiron1946]

One thing I have noticed about some of the older handmade hammer that I once had in my collection was that many of them were made in the arc of the swing, not so with modern machine made hammers, early machine made hammers somewhat. Now that I'm spending most of my life sitting, pecking out thing in copper and brass and looking at some of these older silversmith hammers, most of them are made to follow the arc of the swing. I think these old boys may have been on to something there. I got out my favorite forging hammer(FFH) and looked at it's face, yeah, I didn't seem to strike it flat on. I put a big piece of wax on the table and hit with my FFH and then I hit with my biggest silversmithing hammer(SSH) that followed the arc of the swing. My FFH didn't make a full flat face impression in the wax but the SSH did. Looking at that I was sitting there thinking of the wasted energy I had put into forging. Them old timers had a good idea on building there hammers that way. Maybe copper, gold, silversmiths and armor makers were just lazier than blacksmiths or our current perception of hammer design is flawed, I don't know for sure.
Still a nice looking hammer, Brian :D

[ThomasPowers]

I've seen a number of repousse hammers used for doing quite large scale work---think Statue of Liberty here in the USA---where striking tools would not be as effective. (though nowadays such work is sometimes done with air powered tooling!)

The hammer with the palm swell I generally call a chaser's hammer or an engraver's hammer.

[John B]

I've seen a number of repousse hammers used for doing quite large scale work---think Statue of Liberty here in the USA---where striking tools would not be as effective. (though nowadays such work is sometimes done with air powered tooling!)

The hammer with the palm swell I generally call a chaser's hammer or an engraver's hammer.

Thanks Thomas, I will add that info to the blacksmiths tools descriptions list I have/am compiling for a database, the handle form as far as I am aware only occurs in the smaller size hammers, they fit the palm nicely for chasing, engraving or forming when working sheet metal