Tim I think the only one that can answer that question is Hofi. Because he would have to publish the metallurgy of what is in his hammer. Then try to go back and find the metallurgy of the hammer you are comparing it to. That would answer the question of the cast hammer Hofi makes not the forged hammer. Balance of the hammers would be a personal evaluation.

I thought balance was a quantifiable physical property of a hammer. I don't think the spacific metallurgy of the head is important unless the hardness is more or less.

Also, I believe the earlier comments with regards to grinders had to do with the manufacture of the rounding hammer, rather than Hofi style hammers.

I still see the shape and balance as similar to Hofi's hammer. Aside from the round face none of the comments have explained how the original hammer would be inferior to a similarly sized Hofi style hammer.

Uri Hofi has done an excellent job of creating a coherent and teachable method of forging. Like most things in blacksmithing, I've seen all the parts in various places, there's nothing new under the sun.

We have read this comment before you raise some valid points. The question was how is this much older hammer originaly made at the end of the 19th century much diffrent fron a Hofi hammer?

i think it's difficult to know, especially since there probably wasn't any standard, with great variety between both individual smiths & regions. if you look at videos of freddy habermann, for example, you will see that his hammer has some similarities to hofi's, and yet the two are also quite different. by the same token, during my apprenticeship in japan, i saw great variety of hammers, even though they were all used by knife/sword makers, and all fall within the category of "japanese cutlery hammer". some were decidedly superior to others. with hand tools, i find that apparently small differences in shape and weight translate into big differences in performance. a mercedes bentz and a trabant are both cars, both use an internal combustion engine, and both are (were?) made in germany, so on the surface, there is little difference. however, i know which one i would rather drive...

Fcrion "Uri Hofi has done an excellent job of creating a coherent and teachable method of forging."
If you watch the video of Haberman it is his forging method. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qKLSSnm-inA

i think it's difficult to know, especially since there probably wasn't any standard, with great variety between both individual smiths & regions. if you look at videos of freddy habermann, for example, you will see that his hammer has some similarities to hofi's, and yet the two are also quite different. by the same token, during my apprenticeship in japan, i saw great variety of hammers, even though they were all used by knife/sword makers, and all fall within the category of "japanese cutlery hammer". some were decidedly superior to others. with hand tools, i find that apparently small differences in shape and weight translate into big differences in performance. a mercedes bentz and a trabant are both cars, both use an internal combustion engine, and both are (were?) made in germany, so on the surface, there is little difference. however, i know which one i would rather drive...

There still is not any standard. There is one blacksmith pushing a method that I am sure works well for many people who try it but it is not the only way. There are many ways and you can not use the Hofi system and still work efficently free from pain. The farriers hammer is similarly shaped to the Hofi hammer has been around for over 100 years the are many makes of this pattern some nicer than others. Just look on ebay there are about 5 or 6 up for sale at at time. I learned hammer control from Peter Ross I see nothing substantively different from what he taught me and what I learned from him other smiths and figured out by my self. I also received instruction on hammer control during my college education from silversmiths who really understand hammers as well. Personally I drive a Ford. I dont even know what a Trabant is. I find that when I drive around NY more often than not guy in the Mercedes is cutting me off and tring to steal my parking spot. He may be nimbler but I can plow snow and haul 2000 lbs.

Francis Trez Cole

yup, I said back in post #5 of this thread that I think Hofi's methods are a refinement of Eastern European tradition that we have had less exposure to here in the US.

Lewis

My catalog and book lists these as sharpening hammers. I use mine to forge sheet into different tooling. Just another size of rounding hammer I have available (that happens to have a cross pien on it). Sorry no input on the original question.

Tools do not make the blacksmith, the blacksmith makes the tools.
It is NOT the hammer that does the work, it is the blacksmith holding the hammer.

Show me your hammer and how YOU use the hammer and I will add that knowledge to MY bag of tricks. I can then apply that technique to any hammer I care to use.

Those hammers are still available (not usually in such graceful form) from farriers' supply companies, listed as clipping hammers. Lately there has been a trend to make a clipping hammer with a small pointy pein, but I, personally, cannot see how that aids drawing a clip, but think that it would rather make it more difficult.
They are similar to the Hofi hammer in that the do not have a lot of weight on either side of the eye. They are usually supplied with a very long handle that farriers seem to favour.
I personally do not like a hammer with that short a distance between eye and working face.

I have a couple of those myself. One was one of my first blacksmithing hammers an dI had to weld up the face with hard face rod. I have used that hammer on and off for 15 years at least. I love forge welding with it it seems to be perfect for it to my style. it is 2.5 lbs. I have another that looks like a knockoff of a Jay Sharp design with that wider peen. I also have a one that is more like a straight rounding hammer. I do my main forging with a hofi style made by Tom Clark I have one in 2.5 and one in 3.2 lbs. All techniques are valid as long as you are not hurting yourself. Watching my farrier friends makes me ache the way they hunch over a lot and how fast they run the hammer when turning shoes. It works beautifully for them so it is right.