Your favorite hammer

[Jeremiah]

My favorite is about a 2# cross peen I found at an antique shop along with an assortment of other tools that came out of an old smithy, but she now needs a new handle as my knuckle can vouch for.

[Nick]

I've got two. A 2# Truper crosspeen, which is a really good hammer despite being cheap. I used it for my primary forging hammer from the time I first started smithing until recently, and I still use it as my primary hot raising hammer and some forging work.

The other one is a 2# crosspeen forged by William Collier, a smith in the Lower Peninsula, Michigan. It's a great hammer, I'll get a picture of it next time I'm in the forge.

[JPH]

Howdy....

For most work I use my 8lb cross pein that I made about 10 years back..for smaller work I use a 6 or 4# cross pein and for the dainty/delicate stuff a 3 or even the miniscule 2 lb cross pein...

JPH

[evfreek]

I've purchased a few HF hammers that I haven't used yet. I was suprised that after I scoured all the hardware / home improvement stores I realized that HF seemed to have the better selection for blacksmiths...

...

Hi. I bought a couple of Harbor Freight 3 lb double face sledge hammers. They require a lot of work for the price, but like most of that cheap stuff, one has to think of them more as a kit than as a finished product. It seemed to be a decent hammer. A bit heavy, but that is probably technique. The steel is not bad. It is not like my old G&G, which is 1095. It spark tests more like 1070. It will ding a railroad track with its initially poorly dressed face. The reason I bought the hammers is that I saw a blueprint on how to make a diagonal peen hammer out of a double face sledge. Unfortunately, that BP seems to have disappeared and I cannot find it with the search engine.

First, I chopped two diagonal cheeks off with a Home Depot cutting disk in my angle grinder. Yes, I did end up shattering the disk . I was ready, though. Face shield, side shield safety glasses, leather apron and heavy gloves. Yes, I wear gloves when I do high risk grinding. I heard a story about someone cutting off his third leg after foolishly grinding in a notch with a name brand type 24 wheel. I just keep the gloves far away from the action area. Anyway, the cutting saves a lot of grinding, but in retrospect, it is risky and probably not worth it. One diagonal peen eats one thin cutting disk. The good point is that after you're done, there is minimal grinding left. The Harbor Freight steel is easy to grind, even though it is too hard to file.

This hammer works pretty well at drawing down stock such as tong reins. Unfortunately, it only lasted for about two sessions. The epoxy or plastic top that looks like it is gluing the handle on popped off. Once it pops off, you are anti-social. The hammer head will be next, in a fairly short while. The fellow who bought these hammers for us said he already had one let loose. So, as soon as that plastic top pops off, you'ld better back off. Stay away from others when hitting, and fix that handle!

Just a few more blows will loosen the handle to the point at which it may be removed by tugging on it. The method of attachment is completely dangerous and wrong, since the wood handle is seated only about halfway up the eye of the hammer head. Plus, there is a lot of junk flash that has to be ground out. The handle is not hickory, but rather some kind of tropical hardwood. It is not soft, and is fairly durable, but it stinks if you try to work it. Hopefully, it is non-toxic, unlike some tropical woods. Rehandle in the typical way. Rasp down the handle until it fits ALL the way through the eye. Use a hardwood wedge and saw down the handle along the direction of the head. Initially, the hammer comes with only one junk steel wedge. This is no good. Remove the steel wedge and drive in a decent wood one. The steel wedge can be reused and driven perpendicularly, but it needs to be notched. Or, just make another one with hammer, chisel and anvil. This will hold the head on in the time-honored way.

Still not quite right. The other face is not dressed, so the edges will mark your work severely. Use the angle grinder to get these out. You can do a better job with a belt grinder, but it is so bad that the angle grinder will be a huge improvement.

The handle is still the wrong shape. Not enough thinning at the grip, and if you follow Ron Reil's advice, this deficiency must be corrected. This can be done with a hobby rasp. At this point, the hammer is decent, possibly even a favorite. It is a lot of work (a few hours). There is someone on EBay who alters these $3.99 hammers and gets bitd in the $50 range for them. Maybe it is worth it.

[Glenn]

That is Blueprint

BP0343 by Bud Norris
How to make a 45 degree pein hammer from a double faced sledge.

It is in line to be posted as soon as we get the new server on line.

[Dutchmancreek]

I bought one of those Harbour Freight cross piens on a whim. Within less than an hour it broke right in half (the head). If you use these, remove the black paint and look for signs of cracks before you use them.

There are much better hammers out there to modify. In the midwest, Menards has a line of inexpensive engineer hammers that can be changed into different configurations.

Steve

[evfreek]

AAARGH :mad: Now you tell me! I did hear about the Menards hammers, but there are no stores near me. I will need to proof before modifying, and this is the last time I will buy one of these Harbor Freight hammers. But, it was cheap

Thanks, Glenn, for the pointer!

[Hofi]

To Whom It May Concern
From 1997 Until 2001 4 Years I was the only teacher at the ''ozark school''. I built the school and gave them my teaching system. I forged most of the tools at the school and the process sampling plate too. In this time I tought Mr Klark how to forge The ''Hofi'' Hammer.
What he calls to day the ''ozark'' hammer is a varietion of the ''Hofi'' Hammer and not for the good.

Hofi

[Nick]

Here's a couple pictures of my favorite forging hammer. As I said before, it was hand made, and is the best balanced hammer I've ever held. It was my wedding present from the man who made it.

[skunkriv]

Nick, that's a good looking hammer. How come you are holding it in the wrong hand? ;)

[Vernon]

My other favorite hammer is my 25 Little Giant "Mjollnir" because ... WELL, ITS MINE

Haha, 'Mjolnir', or 'Mjollnir' is an EXCELLENT name for a hammer... but, y'know, the original had a bit of forging error... :D

[skunkriv]

Mjollnir-had to look that one up. Thor's hammer, yes a good name. Also found this:

Old Norse: Mjöllnir. The Russian word for lightning is 'molniya'.

[Sam Salvati]

Mjollnir-had to look that one up. Thor's hammer, yes a good name. Also found this:

Old Norse: Mj

[Nick]

Nick, that's a good looking hammer. How come you are holding it in the wrong hand?

You can hold a forging hammer in the left hand? :confused:




;)

[Glenn]

You "can" hold a forging hammer in your right hand, but you ever try to hit anything holding it that way?


You taught one of your hands how to use the hammer, pencil, screw driver, etc, spend some time and teach the "other" hand to do the same task. The additional training comes in real handy on occasion. (pun intended).

[rthibeau]

How come I can't see any links to the photos of Nick's hammer??

[BT]

Well, obviously it IS a right handed hammer. :D

[BT]

How come I can't see any links to the photos of Nick's hammer??

You weren't by any chance celebrating St. Pat's day yesterday were you? ;)

[rthibeau]

I swear that photo did not come up at any time yesterday when I was trying to see it.:confused:

[hammerkid]

I like my Richard T. dancing frog forge 2lb straight peen hammer the best.

Edited August 6, 2008 by hammerkid

[civilwarblacksmith]

I mainly use a 2lb regular crosspien hammer for most of my work. But the hammer I like to use depends greatly on the work I am doing.

[psilogen]

my main hammer was a gift from an antiques crawler I work with. It's about 2#, cross pein, and I gave it my own handle. It's served me well, but I am a big fan of the double-faced sledges, 3-4#, with a heavy taper. I haven't seen too many in the wild (we had one at my employer's forge, but it started falling apart and we'd rather not throw chips all around the shop). I found the heavy taper helped me to really squeeze out nails, being a smaller guy without the best technique. Does anyone know where to find a decent one?

I tend to switch it up a little bit, depending on what I'm working on. A smaller hammer for shaping, sledge for drawing out.

[ironrosefarms]

My favorite hammer is the only hammer I have that was owned by my Great Grandfather. It is a light weight at just 1 1/2 pounds but has a good balance. Recently I broke the handle and put on a new one, still trying to get it shaped back to the point of being my favorite again.

Anytime I buy a hammer that has that epoxy plastic plug thing in the top of the eye I first take it to the drill then pry that plug out. Once the plug is out you can drive the handle out and start over in getting the handle set in the right way. Only after this has been done will I swing that hammer. I do this on the smithing hammers as well as claw hammers for the occasional carpentry... I just don't trust the epoxy plug system of hiding the cheap and often improper wedging of the head and handle...

[jayco]

A year ago, I would have said my favorite hammer was an old 1& 3/4 lb. ball pein.
Since that time, I've changed a lot of my hammers to a longer, tapered handle. ( I make my own handles.......and some hammers ,too.)

I couldn't honestly say I have a 'favorite' anymore!

[coltpax]

My facorite hammer is a Stanley 2 lb. drilling hammer. Has a really short handle, which I seem to like for some reason.