scott.livesey Posted November 15, 2011 Share Posted November 15, 2011 what would be a good starting point for a "bowl adze"? is the steel in a pick/mattock high enough in carbon so it can be hardened? final product will have a single bevel and about a 60 degree angle from handle. thanks in advance for your help. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigfootnampa Posted November 15, 2011 Share Posted November 15, 2011 A mattock would be a pretty big tool to make a bowl adze from. Ball peen hammers are a common starting place. They come in many sizes. Some are cheap castings and should be avoided... many are about 1045 steel though and will work very well for adzes. I start by reshaping the peen to a square tang that gives good grip for my tongs and then redrift and enlarge the handle hole. From this point it's a simple matter of drawing out the hammer head into the adze shape and heat treating then grinding and sharpening and handling the tool. You can often get old ball peen hammers at flea markets, auctions or antique stores. Some of the guys, who make lots, prefer to buy new hammers of known quality for starting stock. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nuge Posted November 15, 2011 Share Posted November 15, 2011 You can get a five pack of ball pein hammers from Harbor Freight for cheeep, like 10 -15$. Get the one's with the wood handles. I usually have a few boxes kicking around, they are a good starting point for top tools, and fly press tooling, and raising hammers, and..... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted November 15, 2011 Share Posted November 15, 2011 I never pay over a dollar for a ball peen head at the fleamarket and pick them up often enough that I have a bucket of ballpeen heads---top brands too! Buying them without a handle lowers the price considerably and since the first thing we do is to remove the handle... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KYBOY Posted November 15, 2011 Share Posted November 15, 2011 The "Vaughne" brand ball peens are all 1080 carbon steel..They make outstanding cutting tools.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted November 15, 2011 Share Posted November 15, 2011 The newer ones or all of them over the last 50+ years? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KYBOY Posted November 15, 2011 Share Posted November 15, 2011 Well I know the newer ones are, they said so..Also believe it or not I was searching around the net on this same subject and found a civil court case where a man was sueing Vaughne manufacturing for the loss of his eye...It seems he used a claw hammer to strike the end of a case hardned hitch pin. A piece of the hammer face sheared off and put out his eye..In the case it stated that vaughne uses 1080 for its hammers..the case was from 1969.. heres a link..http://il.findacase....00051.IL.htm/qx Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigfootnampa Posted November 15, 2011 Share Posted November 15, 2011 I'll have to keep an eye out for those Vaughan hammers. I have had good results with most all that I have used though. I have boxes of them in all sizes and ages. Only a few are the cheapy cast types and I toss them... wait they'd make good decoy anchors. I just gather such things when I see them at bargain prices. About a dollar each is good as Thomas says. I might pay two for a good one if I am feeling flush. Sometimes I get them for half that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted November 15, 2011 Share Posted November 15, 2011 I teach a smithing intro class at the local university a couple of times a year; don't charge much and provide the metal for some projects for free so cheap hammers are a handy thing to have. Also it was great to see what a bucket of hammers was like---remember the old saying "Dumber than a bucket of hammers!" Seems like if you have a bunch to hand you find them cheap but if you *need* one *now* all you can find are expensive ones....a lot like anvils... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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