Hey all I came across this hammer and I really like it but there are a few questions I was hoping you could help me out with.

 

Its really soft, in one of the pics you can see the edge of the face has started to roll from use, also there is a spot where i hit it with another hammer just to see how soft it was and it didnt take much to flatten that spot where it was startig to roll( planned on refacing it anyway I wasnt just beating on it) 

 

so my questions are (newbie so forgive the ignorance) : was this hammer made out of a mild steel on purpose, meaning there is no point in trying to harden it for use? is that somthing that is done, I mean I know thereare brass hammers and such but it looks like a standard straight  pein. It looks like a production piece although any markings are long gone.

 

my other question is if it is good to harden, dont have a torch to temper it with, is there another way to temper it with out having to use a torch?

 

Thanks in advance - Max

ill leave the questions regarding tempering to those with more knowledge, but it is entirely possible that the hammer has been through a fire and has been annealed, or was intentionally annealed to make it soft for use with struck tools.  search up 'spark test' and apply that to get a ROUGH guestimate of what kind of steel you are dealing with.  without knowing what kind of metal it is you may have a tough time trying to re-harden it, as you wont know exactlywhat the cycle needs to be.

It is possible (even probably since it appears to be a factory hammer) that is got over heated somewhere and that is why it is soft.  If you have a forge you can heat treat it again.  It can be tempered in an oven after hardening.

 

ron

looks a lot like this hammer to mehttp://www.hammersource.com/Ball_Pein_Hammers/8_lb._Straight_Pein_Sledge_32_wood_handle/ (except maye a little smaller).

 

As for tempering you can forge a mild steel drift then heat the drift and drive it into the eye,watch the colors run until  u like them then quench to stop the process.

 

hope this helps

Rhett

looks a lot like this hammer to mehttp://www.hammersource.com/Ball_Pein_Hammers/8_lb._Straight_Pein_Sledge_32_wood_handle/ (except maye a little smaller).

 

As for tempering you can forge a mild steel drift then heat the drift and drive it into the eye,watch the colors run until  u like them then quench to stop the process.

 

hope this helps

Rhett

 

 

arghhhhh double post

Awesome thanks guys, this plus finishing my first set of tongs will be my weekend project.