How to remove a handle from a hammer

[Glenn]

How do you remove a handle from a hammer in order to leave the handle in usable condition?

Let us say you want to remove the handle from a hammer head. Destructive removal is usually accomplished by cutting the handle off at the bottom of the eye, drilling out the wood, and knocking out the wedge, followed by cleaning up the interior portion of the eye and inserting a new handle. But what is you want to save the handle and reinsert in into the same hammer head. How do you remove the handle and leave it in usable condition?

For the discussion
1) the handle has a wooden wedge only
2) the handle has wooden and metal wedges
3) the handle was wedged and glued into the eye

[CurlyGeorge]

Dang, Glenn. If you're gonna just put the same handle back in the hammer, just leave it there to begin with. I just did that with a handle that had a steal wedge. I tapped the wedge back and forth with a screw driver until it finally worked its way back out enough to get a hold of it with pliers and pulled it on out. I then used a piece of 1/2" round stock to tap the handle back out of the head. Didn't damage the handle. Actually, I reused the handle in a different hammer. :D

[rthibeau]

If the wedge(s) can be removed, then tap the handle out and you're ready to rehandle. If the wedge(s) can't be removed easily enough, or if the handle has been glued as well, I use a piece of round bar slightly smaller than the eye, place the hammer in the post vise, and use the round bar and a 6 lb hammer to drive the handle out by punching it out. Sometimes the handle can be reused as is, most times you have to reshape the eye end for a proper fit. I do that on the belt sander. Usually the handle will be loose already and that is why you would be reusing it, so it's easy to knock it out of the hammer head. When replacing the handle, a wood wedge in line with the hammer head and a metal wedge 45º to that should suffice if all fits properly.

[Frank Turley]

and......4) There is no wedge.

It seems to be little known in the U.S. that top tools do not need to be wedged. In Europe, seldom will you find a wedge in a top tool haft. Thinking about it, the top tool is not swung, so there is little chance of the tool loosening and going flying across the room. Sometimes, in use, the tool may become a bit loose on the haft, but a few tamps of the wooden butt end on the anvil will tighten it again. If it loosens repeatedly, that usually means that the tip end has a taper, a poor fit. The haft is easily removed by hanging/supporting the tool loosely in the opened vise jaws and knocking it out with a hammer-eye punch. It can be worked over with a horse rasp/file or belt sander for a better fit. I apply linseed oil and turpentine, 50-50, BEFORE inserting again. Lots of times, the haft tip will extend well beyond the tool eye. It doesn't need to be cut flush as is done with a hammer.

An old timer told me that if a top tool is wedged, there is the possibility of the striker miss-hitting and setting up a vibration which causes the haft to split. The wedge enhances the split. This has only happened to me once.

http://www.turleyforge.com Granddaddy of Blacksmith Schools

[macbruce]

I like to use an arbor press to remove handles.
Support the bottom of the hammer in the press, place say a 3/4'' x 3'' +- round slug on top of the wedge and push it out.............mb

[arftist]

This will not answer your question, since I know of no way to remove a properly intalled handle without at least making it shorter.

I can give some info as to how to remove a handle for replacement though.

Cut the hanle off close to the head.

Now, press it through from the bottom. Pressing from the top (the side the wedge is driven in from) is far more difficult. When pressed from the bottom, they come right out, drilling is not needed.

[rthibeau]

Ask 6 blacksmiths a question...get 8 responses.... :P

[silkhopesmith]

and......4) There is no wedge.

It seems to be little known in the U.S. that top tools do not need to be wedged. In Europe, seldom will you find a wedge in a top tool haft. Thinking about it, the top tool is not swung, so there is little chance of the tool loosening and going flying across the room. Sometimes, in use, the tool may become a bit loose on the haft, but a few tamps of the wooden butt end on the anvil will tighten it again. If it loosens repeatedly, that usually means that the tip end has a taper, a poor fit. The haft is easily removed by hanging/supporting the tool loosely in the opened vise jaws and knocking it out with a hammer-eye punch. It can be worked over with a horse rasp/file or belt sander for a better fit. I apply linseed oil and turpentine, 50-50, BEFORE inserting again. Lots of times, the haft tip will extend well beyond the tool eye. It doesn't need to be cut flush as is done with a hammer.

An old timer told me that if a top tool is wedged, there is the possibility of the striker miss-hitting and setting up a vibration which causes the haft to split. The wedge enhances the split. This has only happened to me once.

http://www.turleyforge.com Granddaddy of Blacksmith Schools

I couldn't agree more. top tools that are used frequently occasionally need re-forging, so wedging the handle can be a wasted effort. As Frank says, they have much less sting if not wedged and are not as prone to split under a bad blow. If it doesn't have to be carefully fitted and wedged a good top tool handle can be made in about 6 minutes with a drawknife. I usually leave mine octagonal for easy grip and fast shaving. Crooked wood will do fine, saving the straighter pieces for your hammers.

[clinton]

I am with arftist on this one- cut it off and reshape it, just gonna be a little shorter. macbruce has a good method, arbor press- his must be larger than mine

[Tom Bierly]

Hi this is my first post here. I'm not into Blacksmithing (yet), but I do like to pound metal.

Anyway, this past weekend I picked up a 3 1/2 pound sledge at a flea market for 50¢. After running it through my de-ruster, I decided to turn it into a sinking hammer. The handle is old and has a great feel to it, so I want to keep it if possible, but it would be so much easier to grind the new shape if I can take the handle off. I searched google on how to do this, and I found this forum. I thought I had the solution. But:

1) The handle has a wooden wedge. An answer wasn't given in this thread for one of those. I've never seen one before (that I noticed). What is the advantage of a wooden wedge over a metal wedge?

2)The handle isn't very long. If I cut it off and shorten it, I'll beat my knuckles to death when I use it.

Anyone have any ideas?

Thanks.

[arftist]

Hi this is my first post here. I'm not into Blacksmithing (yet), but I do like to pound metal.

Anyway, this past weekend I picked up a 3 1/2 pound sledge at a flea market for 50¢. After running it through my de-ruster, I decided to turn it into a sinking hammer. The handle is old and has a great feel to it, so I want to keep it if possible, but it would be so much easier to grind the new shape if I can take the handle off. I searched google on how to do this, and I found this forum. I thought I had the solution. But:

1) The handle has a wooden wedge. An answer wasn't given in this thread for one of those. I've never seen one before (that I noticed). What is the advantage of a wooden wedge over a metal wedge?

2)The handle isn't very long. If I cut it off and shorten it, I'll beat my knuckles to death when I use it.

Anyone have any ideas?

Thanks.

Sounds like a good time to learn how to make hammer handles or at least how to fit them.

A properly made hammer head is tapered. The eye, or hole the handle fits in is wider at the top than at the bottom. This can be confusing, because there is often two tapers, one at each end of the eye, but the top of the head, the end the wedge is driven in, is the widest. When the handle, shaped as close as possible to the eye is driven into the head and the wedge driven into the head, the hammer should not be removable other than by destruction. Perhaps, with a good press and a loose handle, removal is possible, but that method should amount to some shearing of the wedge end of the handle, leaving a looser fit on re-insertion.

Wood wedges are common, usualy used with a metal wedge driven perpendicular to the wood one.

[ThomasPowers]

if you really want to save the handle and it is currently a good fit in the hammer head you will need to remove the wedge.
This can be a problem with wooden wedges, some times the best you can do is to remove as much of the wedge as you can with a small burr----grind it out. if it is a good sized wedge you might be able to drill a hole in it and run a screw into it to grab and pull [don't go to deep and get out of the wedge.]

[Tom Bierly]

if you really want to save the handle and it is currently a good fit in the hammer head you will need to remove the wedge.
This can be a problem with wooden wedges, some times the best you can do is to remove as much of the wedge as you can with a small burr----grind it out. if it is a good sized wedge you might be able to drill a hole in it and run a screw into it to grab and pull [don't go to deep and get out of the wedge.]

I had thought of the idea of drilling the hole and using a screw. After reading this I gave it a try. It didn't work. I ended up using the drill to remove a lot of the wedge and then a utility knife to cut and scrape the rest out. A scrape piece of wood and a little gentle persuasion later the handle came right out. Its in great shape. Nothing was scraped off when I took it out.

I'm still trying to figure out what the functional difference is between a wood and a metal wedge.

[ThomasPowers]

Wood has a higher coefficient of friction; but metal can be *driven* in deeper on a handle already fairly tight.

I'll admit that the screw has only worked a couple of times for myself; but when it does it's a lot faster/easier!

I like to use hardwood wood wedges and pattern welded metal ones---just scraps left around from knifemeking.

[ciladog]

Here is a method that works most of the time with wooden handles.

Place the hammer head in a few inches of water with some dish detergent added to break surface tension. Leave it there for a day or two and the wood fibers will swell up and be crushed by the constraints of the eye of the head.

Take it out and place it somewhere it will dry out. The top of a wood stove is a good place standing on the head. When it dries out the wood will be smaller than the eye and you can drive it out. You don’t even have to remove the wedges.

[ralphy]

All I have to do is use my hammers and the dang heads will fall off but otherwise I just cut it off reshape it and reinstall it. or if it's to short get a new handle. :D

[ThomasPowers]

Except that he wants to re-use the hammer handle for the same hammer and so the soak and crush method will NOT produce the results he wants (and may not work if you live in a place where it's common to soak the end of the hammer handle in linseed oil to prevent humidity cycle hammer loosening.)

A hammer handle drift and a screwpress with a hole in the base large enough to put the handle through can work if you just want to force one out.

[Bentiron1946]

I have purchased hammers from back East and after a couple of months out here in single digit humidity the head will just fall off of the handle. You don't even need to drive it off the wood has shrunk so much. It easy to take it off out here in the West if it has come for the East. Now if a Wester hammer has made the move in the opposite direction you have the other problem, the wood will get all swole up and bruise the fibers something awful around the edge of the socket and sometimes this will lead to the handle breaking or being in there so tight you'll just never get it off without cutting it off and knocking it out in little chunks. Different problems in different areas of the country. <_<

[Tom Bierly]

SInce I mentioned why I wanted to take the handle off, I thought I'd give an update on my project. I used my bench top belt sander (can't think of the proper name for these things right now) to start shaping the head. It has an almost square cross-section, so ground off the corners, tapering it off as it went back towards the handle. Then I started putting the dome on the end. The head was 1 3/4" square and I'm using about a 2 1/2" radius, so it won't be a full half-sphere. After I finish the first end, I'll decide what radius I should use for the other side and start grinding that.

[ThomasPowers]

Good; you usually want a way larger radius curve for a hammer head. if you think about it a sphere the size of your hammer face has a point---the contact point and it will leave dings in your work. Much better to have an arc from a much larger sphere where the contact point is more "flat".

Armour makers run into this a lot as they not only need to dish sheetmetal, they want it smooth when they are done with it.

[Tom Bierly]

I finished the one side and decided to leave the other side alone (for now?). Here's a link to the pictures.


http://www.flickr.com/photos/bierlyeurope/sets/72157627616330372/with/6123692521

[pkrankow]

Looks like a winner on the rounding hammer.

Ever get a "safety wedge" out without destroying all the wood? Safety wedges are those round metal wedge things in production hammers. The best time I have had is drilling the wood out of the center of the circle, then pulling the wedge with a large easy-out. Only worked 1 out of 3 tries though (3 different hammers), and the handle was still so messed up I cut the end off.

If your handle is attached with a glue like 3M 5200, or Sikaflex, there is a product to soften it called "anti-bond" It is a small fortune (about $20) for a 1 oz can and is meant for un-installing hardware from boats without damaging the gel-coat.

Phil

[John McPherson]

Bentiron may be on to something about humidity: next time I get some flea market hammers, I will try baking them in a warm oven for a few hours before attempting to drive the handles out of the eye from the top. Most epoxy will soften at 250F as well. Beats drilling, and might be able to reuse the wedges for a change.

I prefer a shorter handle anyway, so the loss of a inch or two seldom affects re-use. Most of the cheap import hammers seem to have handles turned from recycled pallet wood, with no thought as to grain direction. These leftover handles are good enough to reuse for top tools.

[Tom Allyn]

If your handle is attached with a glue like 3M 5200, or Sikaflex, there is a product to soften it called "anti-bond" It is a small fortune (about $20) for a 1 oz can and is meant for un-installing hardware from boats without damaging the gel-coat.

I wasn't familiar with 3M 5200. I just Googled it. Looks like good stuff. Marine applications are very demanding.

I've always used construction adhesive (subfloor adhesive) when rehandling my carpentry hammers. A thin coating on the handle and a little smeared into the eye is all you need. When you set the wood wedge it will squeeze out of any gaps between the handle and the eye. Then you usually get a little more squeezing out when you set the metal shim.

Rehandled this way, I can expect 3-6 years of daily use before the hammer needs rehandling. And that's in the Pacific Northwest where we have very wet winters and very dry summers. The handle stays on. No sense in trying to remove it without cutting, drilling and punching.

[gearhartironwerks]

3M 5200 is some really tough stuff and is almost impossible to remove. I'd suggest 3M 4200, or Sikaflex. Wear rubber gloves when working with it.
John