Hammer abuse

[Glenn]

As blacksmiths we use hammers a lot. We do not try to abuse or destroy the hammer, but things do happen. Show us the type damage that sometimes happens to hammers. These should be working hammers, not something created to structurally fail. A brief history of the hammer and damage would be nice if it were available.

This thread is related to
Physics help,
Hammer breaking ups and downs,
Shattering Hammers on Mythbusters



This 2 pound hammer came to me from an uncle who was a fabricator/auto mechanic. He had no explanation as to the cause of the damage. I put a handle in it and put it in the hammer rack.

[Sam Salvati]

I'll try to post some pictures of the "hammer" rack at my new job, never seen so many abused hammers.

[Finnr]

For about ten years I had a small piece of a hammer under the skin of my belly. Never had it removed because it didn't hurt. Moral of the story. Wear a shirt when you are working. Don't strike things harder than the hammer head .

The hunk of hammer worked it's self out in due time.

Finnr

[irnsrgn]

I have a couple of those machinists chipping hammers Glenn, they both look like that.

[Nick]

The smithing hammer I used most of the time the first few years I was blacksmithing developed a bit of a lip on the top of the face as a result of the way I was hitting the steel, sort of the way the soles of a pair of shoes wear out based on how you walk. I redressed the face, and have had to redress it a couple other times for dings it's gotten.

One mistake I often made early on was using my forging hammer on set tools and in the vicinity of cutoff tools, things like that. Now I have a hammer specifically for use on and with other tools, to avoid damaging the face of my good hammers.

[Jmercier]

I should have taken a picture of my primary forging hammer after a visitor to my shop *cough* brother *cough* used it with a hot cut and put a huge gash down the center of it... that's an abused hammer! i still haven't totally ground out the gash yet, just mostly.

I've got a hammer in my shop that i'll get a pic of tomorrow that's got a HUGE chunk taken out of the side of it, looks like the back end of it shattered. Not sure how it got that way however as i got the hammer from another smith who got it from another

[Sam Salvati]

I have a couple of those machinists chipping hammers Glenn, they both look like that.

Hehe, are they called CHIPPING hammers cause they chip? Hehehehe.

[jayco]

This old hammer is the victim of another kind of abuse....mushrooming.

I have another just like this one.....that is not mushroomed.

I suspect the steel in this one has been softened or "annealed" by being placed in a fire to burn out the wood still left in the eye after the handle had broken.This was a common practice with farmersyears ago.

I could heat treat this one, but I think I'll leave it as is for now.
It's sort of turning into a flatter!

[ThomasPowers]

Around these parts hammer dammage often seems to be due to folks using them for stone, concrete or block work