Some time back we had some videos showing Thai smiths at work and I was very curious about their hammers.  They looked like your typical "japanese" hammer in that the head was off-center, but the head looked to be stuck into the handle instead of the other way around.  Of course, freezing the video and trying to examine a single screen shot wasn't very helpful in determining how the hammers were constructed and I couldn't find any photos on the net.

 

Well, guess what just popped up for sale on ebay?  Yep.  And a lot of good photos that show how the head is actually constructed and attached to the handle.

 

 

This shot clearly shows the head is held to the shaft with some type of mastic.  Maybe their version of pitch glue, though it could be any modern epoxy, too.

 

 

Again with the epoxy material.  Looks like they wrapped the socket for the handle to slip into, but that could also be a fortuitous remnant from whatever they repurposed to make the head.  Maybe a piece of flat stock forge-welded around the plug that makes the face?

 

 

 

 

Very neat way of making a hammer. 

 

 

 

 

very interesting

Very bronze age

Never seen anything like it, very neat. Considering the rear of the head is hollow and the handle's angle begins behind that, this would be an extreme example of a weight-forward design. Primitive as it is they might be on to something there.

Thanks for posting the pics, definitely an interesting method of hammer making.

Stone age is exactly what I was thinking Gerald. Eyes were fairly recent, early-mid bronze age maybe?

 

Thanks for posting the pics. Going to buy it?

 

Frosty The Lucky.