I have a nice Hofi style hammer that I got used on craigslist.  Unfortunately the epoxy type material that was used to keep the handle on the hammer has failed and the hammer is pretty much unusable now.  I am planning to get a new handle and recondition the hammer.  I have a few questions before getting two far into this. 

 

The hammer never had as much rebound as my 17$ cheapy "blacksmith" hammer that I bought from lowes.  Does this mean that the hammer may not have been hardended well.  If so, should I try to harden and temper it now that I am going to replace the handle? 

 

What kind of handle should I get and where is the best place to buy handle blanks?  I really don't like the epoxy design to hold the handle in place.  Can I use a more traditional method with this hammer?

 

Any tips or pointers would be greatly appreciated.

 

 

Hofi uses polyurethane glue to set his handles. That handle looks fine, just clean it up and reset it with some glue!

Greetings Intrex,

 

I have reset 2 Hofi hammers with Permatex Epoxy and have had great success.. Your handle looks just fine..  I have used it on other hammers for years and it has always worked well..  I get mine at HD in the large mix size...   Be sure to clean the parts well and a few scrape marks will help..  I let my set up for at least a week...   I hope this helps

 

Forge on and make beautiful things

Jim

Thanks for all of the info,

 

Do you all think it is a waste of time to heat treat it? 

Greetings again,

 

If it is a Hofi hammer it is most likely just fine..  If the face is not scared its plenty hard.  If you have a question about that try a file that will tell the story.  The hammer weight and design is to form metal not to rebound..  Mine work just fine.. 

 

Forge on and make beautiful things

Jim

Hey Jim,

 

I don't think it was actually made by Hofi.  I believe it was a Hofi inspired hammer.  When I first used the hammer it felt really dead on the anvil.  I have never used a real one before so I am not sure how it should feel but It just seemed like it should feel much more lively. 

Good Morning,

 

First; If the glue has fallen out of the hammer, reset the handle with wedges. If the handle is broken, replace it. I got the idea from the Master of Repousse, Nahum Hersom, to replace handles with old pallet wood. I have used wood from pallets for handles, for years. It might have an old nail hole in it, but it works wonderful. I don't glue the handle in place, one wood wedge to hold the handle in place, one steel wedge to lock it. Some people put wood glue in the crack for the wood wedge.

 

Second: If the hammer head needs to be heat treated, the faces of the hammer and the pein would be nicked and scarred real bad (if it was too soft), or pieces breaking out of it (if it is too hard). If you want to reheat treat it you can, you might be making a candidate for the garbage can.

 

Neil

Neil: You didn't happen to run into Ron Reil at a Nahum repousse class did you? Ron's taken a bunch of Nahum's classes.

 

Another source for good handle stock is the hardwood store I buy 1" clear straight grained hickory by the board and prefer it over commercial handles by a long shot.

 

Frosty The Lucky.

It looks like it has a makers mark, if so what is it? I think all of the ones made by Tom Clark were 1045 of course it only takes one hammer to make this statement untrue, but if he is the maker that would be a starting point for heat treating.

Well the old good hammer handles were air dried so as not as brittle as kiln dried hardwoods.  Which coincidentally is how a lot of pallet wood is treated---air dried

 

Another good source is getting broken sledge hammer handles.  Usually broken near the head and discarded giving a lot of length to reshape---my favorite tools to do so are drawknife and farrier's rasp

 

As for hardness I have a lynch collection french cross peen that is DEAD SOFT and is a favorite with my new students as they cannot ding an anvil with it!  But it forges steel quite well.

MetalMangler,

 

The mark on the hammer is a D and an M in a circle like the attached illustration.

 

Thomas,

 

My anvil is dinged up enough that I am not worried about a few more :).  The hammer rebound is so dead compared to my other hammers that is really messes up my rythm when I tap the anvil in between work piece strikes. 

 

Greetings Intrex,

 

I think you will find that was made by Doug Merkel..  He sold them at SOFA for a few years..   I hope this helps with your identification..

 

Forge on and make beautiful things

Jim

Your hammer may have felt dead because the handle was loose in the head. Solve your original issue with the handle and you solve all its problems.

I think Hofi uses stuff called sikaflex to glue the handles.

I would really think no bounce = soft. Might be fine, might not depends. heat treating unknown steels can produce less than the desired results. I would look into finding Doug and seeing if I could pin down what he used before I heat treated the hammer.