Greenbuggy Posted February 16, 2011 Share Posted February 16, 2011 Had a thought the other day as I was picking up more propane for my gas forge....what alloys, or types of steel are handheld blacksmiths hammers usually made from? Some quick searching didn't turn anything up. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Francis Trez Cole Posted February 17, 2011 Share Posted February 17, 2011 4140 is a good choice Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Timothy Miller Posted February 17, 2011 Share Posted February 17, 2011 I like 4140 too. I have found old axles are a good source of steel to make hammers not all of it is 4140 but they are often similar behaving alloys in terms of heat treating and forging. Others may have had different experiences with axles. My process was to forge the hammer to shape quench in water and temper to dark brown in my oven. You can quench in a fast oil if you fear using water but I have never had a problem with quenching axle steel in water. Make sure you don't try to punch the steel too cold it can crack around the eye I made that mistake on my first few attempts. I have been forging with a hammer made from a rear axle of a 73 Dodge van for the past 10 or so years so far so good made from unknown steel. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rthibeau Posted February 17, 2011 Share Posted February 17, 2011 the type of steel used for a blacksmith hammer may depend on exactly how you plan to use it, but I have used 1045, 1060, O1, 4140, 4340, CAT track pins and sucker rod all to good results. Properly heat treated any of them is good. I've even made hammers out of H13 and S7. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MattBower Posted February 17, 2011 Share Posted February 17, 2011 the type of steel used for a blacksmith hammer may depend on exactly how you plan to use it, but I have used 1045, 1060, O1, 4140, 4340, CAT track pins and sucker rod all to good results. Properly heat treated any of them is good. I've even made hammers out of H13 and S7. I'd be a little hesitant about using O1, but any of the rest of those would be great choices. (I'm sure the O1 worked; there's just a higher inherent chance of brittleness problems in a steel with that much carbon.) Of course 1040/1045/1060 are more economical and simpler to heat treat than high alloy stuff. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dogsoldat Posted February 18, 2011 Share Posted February 18, 2011 Any idea what the alloy is used in a track pin. And what are you using for a heat treat on them? I can get a lot of them from work, big ones from our D-8K to fairly small ones on the Volvo processor, it goes thru links on the rails steady. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rthibeau Posted February 19, 2011 Share Posted February 19, 2011 I heat treat the pins same as 4340...seems like they're similar. Regarding the O1 for hammers, yes it is more difficult to work with and I've cracked a few pieces, but when careful it's a nice steel for a hard hammer. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dogsoldat Posted February 19, 2011 Share Posted February 19, 2011 I heat treat the pins same as 4340...seems like they're similar. Regarding the O1 for hammers, yes it is more difficult to work with and I've cracked a few pieces, but when careful it's a nice steel for a hard hammer. thanks, guess I'll start collecting when the scrap bins get sorted to be shipped Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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