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I Forge Iron

Refacing a hammer


Agita

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Picked up a Full pein Hammer this Sunday after church. Normally don't go to the flea market on Sunday but I'm glad I did.(Straight Pein, first teacher always called it a full pein)

Don't have one and have never seen one to buy so I picked it up, although it was in rough shape. The face isn't even and neither is the other end but still. Brushed off some dirt expecting to see made in china and to my supprise found a horseshoe with an "A" and ATHA below it.

Now, all that to ask this....., Grind or forge straight.

Thanks in advance for any advice.

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Reforging is a pretty severe treatment. I would only do it if I wanted to significantly alter the existing profile or to correct a poorly waisted handle hole, or in case of a poor heat treatment that needed correction anyway. Much easier to just redress the surfaces. That hammer appears in pretty good shape as it is... so I would only make minor dressing adjustments.

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I think I'll do another take on that hammer. I had and old, very old hammer in my collection. It was from early on in factory made hammers and the face looked something like that one. While I did grind off all the old face with it's chips and pits the story was not happy. The main reason it was not happy is that the steel was very soft under that awful surface I ground off and got all nice and shiny again,and no I didn't grind it till it turned blue. Almost dead soft in fact, worthless, in no time it was smooshed out and I had to do all that work over. I took it to a friend that had a good heat treating oven and he fixed it up right proper like but it wasn't any good without this re-heat treatment. The face of your hammer almost looks like another old hammer I once had but traded for a planishing hammer. This old hammer had a "steeled" face. This is where a superior piece of steel is forge welded to an inferior piece of steel to make a better and longer lasting hammer face. Your hammer may be just fine for a cross peen hammer but I don't think it will last long as a straight forging face, it will be just too soft under that old hard face. <_<

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I think I'll do another take on that hammer. I had and old, very old hammer in my collection. It was from early on in factory made hammers and the face looked something like that one. While I did grind off all the old face with it's chips and pits the story was not happy. The main reason it was not happy is that the steel was very soft under that awful surface I ground off and got all nice and shiny again,and no I didn't grind it till it turned blue. Almost dead soft in fact, worthless, in no time it was smooshed out and I had to do all that work over. I took it to a friend that had a good heat treating oven and he fixed it up right proper like but it wasn't any good without this re-heat treatment. The face of your hammer almost looks like another old hammer I once had but traded for a planishing hammer. This old hammer had a "steeled" face. This is where a superior piece of steel is forge welded to an inferior piece of steel to make a better and longer lasting hammer face. Your hammer may be just fine for a cross peen hammer but I don't think it will last long as a straight forging face, it will be just too soft under that old hard face. <_<



I hadn't worked on it yet becaues I was waiting for the weekend to buy a flap disk for my grinder. The Pictures don't show it but the face is very uneven. 1/4" or a little more would be removed If I ground it down.

Anyone think that I should grind it and then re-temper it? Just grind it, or do ya'll think it is a layered face with a steel layer? Would .25" go through all the steel and make it useless?

Got me worried now
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It's not usable as it is. I would grind it, then check hardness. If it's soft than I'd try to re-harden and temper it. If that doesn't work then use it as a soft faced hammer to drive punches.



It looked to me like the very edges of the face were harder than the center so it may be a very shallow hardening steel where they wore through the hardened part of the face and didn't stop and re-do and so wore into the softer area. If so you should be able to harden a face on it after grinding.

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