What kind of hammer is this ?

[Still Learnin']

I bought this hammer awhile back and the handle was loose. I replaced it with a similar sized handle. It seems the hammer is not meant for swinging but perhaps for striking ??? I've been told that perhaps it's a planishing hammer. A blacksmith friend of mine has one but his is mushroomed on the smaller radius from being used under a 25# LG. Any ideas on this ? As you can tell (hopefully) from the pic, each face has a different radius. The head is a little over 7" long and I would guess it weighs in excess of 3 lbs. Not exactly a well balanced hand hammer but then again... I am still learnin'. :lol:

[macbruce]

I bought this hammer awhile back and the handle was loose. I replaced it with a similar sized handle. It seems the hammer is not meant for swinging but perhaps for striking ??? I've been told that perhaps it's a planishing hammer. A blacksmith friend of mine has one but his is mushroomed on the smaller radius from being used under a 25# LG. Any ideas on this ? As you can tell (hopefully) from the pic, each face has a different radius. The head is a little over 7" long and I would guess it weighs in excess of 3 lbs. Not exactly a well balanced hand hammer but then again... I am still learnin'.

Looks like it would be nice for sinking bowls, dish shapes.........I'd loose that handle for an average sized one.............mb

[Fe-Wood]

I would go with a planishing hammer over a raising hammer because for raising, you don't typically want to thin the material when you hit it.

As far as handles go, If it feels good in your hand- its the right size. I have become accustom to handles that many would consider huge at 7/8" wide and 1-1/2" deep. My hand fatigue is minimal and control is excellent.

[macbruce]

I bought this hammer awhile back and the handle was loose. I replaced it with a similar sized handle. It seems the hammer is not meant for swinging but perhaps for striking ??? I've been told that perhaps it's a planishing hammer. A blacksmith friend of mine has one but his is mushroomed on the smaller radius from being used under a 25# LG. Any ideas on this ? As you can tell (hopefully) from the pic, each face has a different radius. The head is a little over 7" long and I would guess it weighs in excess of 3 lbs. Not exactly a well balanced hand hammer but then again... I am still learnin'.

Looks like it would be nice for sinking bowls, dish shapes.........I'd loose that handle for an average sized one.............mb

[macbruce]

If you're sinking into a form, you're not thinning much, you're forming. Planishing and forming, I recon it will do both

[Larry H]

the hammer looks like a bowl makin hammer

[brian.pierson]

Still Learnin'

Does it have Pexto on the side? Do a google search on Pexto and you will find examples that look like your hammer. Most list it as a raising hammer but talk about auto body and tinsmith work. Hope it helps.


Brian Pierson

[Timothy Miller]

It is a tinsmiths dishing hammer used for forming bowl forms. Generally this is done into a lead or wood block sometimes sand bag. It is not a planishing hammer they are lighter and have flat faces.

[Still Learnin']

Thanks for all the replies. Brian, no, it doesn't have Pexto on it... at least not that you can tell anymore. I did see a site where it was listed as a standard raising hammer with weight varying from 2-8 lbs !!! I can't imagine swinging an 8 lb. hammer one handed for more than a few licks but there are some beasts out there. I once heard a nationally recognized smith who was constantly being bombarded by a youth who kept questioning his use of a 2500 gr/ 5 1/2 lb dinging hammer. To paraphrase the youth, he kept saying something along the lines of, "all you older smiths like to use large hammers", to which the older accomplished smith answered, "maybe us older guys know a thing or two you don't". I thought that was pretty funny and the older smith did have a lifetime of experience and knows Hoffi and pretty much anybody who is anybody in the smithing world. Of course, this same smith said that it's ok to question the technique and the "why" someone does something in particular. He said even if Francis Whitaker did something a certain way didn't necessarily make it right and that's true to a large extent. You can do something a 100,000 times in a row but there might be an easier, more efficient, safer way right around the next corner. You only need to look at something differently or allow advice and constructive criticism. Alas, I've gotten off subject... lol One of the many aspects that come along with age... hahaha :P

[ThomasPowers]

It's an old school boilermaker's hammer WAY too heavy for plannishing! but good for hot dishing of heavy stock. We were using one of mine yesterday doing some armourmaking hot... I see that nowadays a lot of places are using the term for a seaming hammer---not much use for heavy walled boilers where you need to swage the fire tubes in the head!

(I currently have 2 of them)

[monstermetal]

Pexto calls it a raising hammer.... Do a google image search for "pexto raising hammer" and dozens of pictures of it will show up....

[arftist]

Looks like a dishing hammer to me, but it is either homemade or needs a good dressing. I have some. I usualy use them over a stump for hot forming.

[Timothy Miller]

As I was taught in school where I studied metalsmithing I got all A's by the way once I reached the art department. A raising hammer has two faces like cross peens ground to different radii. it generally is a light hammer most often weighing less than a pound though larger ones are used from time to time. I agree with Larry that it is called a raising hammer because that is what the maker called it, but it would be a poor hammer to raise with. Its too heavy and the faces are the wrong shape. A more correct name IMO biased on its actual use is a sinking or dishing hammer. When a form is raised the metal is usually worked from the outside in towards the center compressing it. When it is sunk the metal is worked form the center out to the edge and it is stretched. Raising is generally viewed a the superior process because it can produce a wider range of forms it does not thin the metal. Though requites a higher degree of skill, it is labor intensive and is often followed by several courses of planishing. This is done by a planishing hammer to remove the hammer marks put in by a raising hammer. These days many people leave in the raising hammer marks as they clearly show the object was hand made and its less work. That hammer being heavy with a broad face can form a a shallow dish rapidly with little to no hammer marks but only if the face is polished and the form you hammer into is smooth or softer than the metal. Blacksmiths tend to sink more then they raise because its hard to raise hot metal and we also tend to work with thicker stock so thinning is less of a problem. Attached are pictures of a raising hammer I made for some reposse I am working on.