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turning hammer into a bowl adze


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So i have an idea to turn an old hammer into a bowl or gutter adze for some woodcarving, and i feel confident in undertaking that task, but i have a question on making a drift to keep the eye from gettin squashed or warped while i hammer it probably pretty close to it. Can i taper the peice i want to use for the drift til it starts to fit through then heat it again and drive it through the hammers eye to get the shape i want to keep.

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Hammer eyes are taperd from both ends, so they have a slight hour glass cross seection. Most ads ive seen are taperd from the top.
Depending on how much meat ther is around the eye you certainly can forge your drift very close then seat it in the eye. I have pretty good luck just selectively quenching (just a sprincle fom the water can so as not to crack it) and forge away. Most hammers have fullers between the eye and head, so it's fairly easy to stay clear of the eye. Fullersand sidesets also help where a wild blow might undo all your work

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This is a question of first building the tools needed to do the job properly, I've found.

 

Assuming you're using a ball-peen hammer and are going to squish down the non-peen end to make the blade, I would first make a fullering tool (a butcher) to further isolate the non-peen end from the eye.  By careful application of heat, you can keep the eye relatively cold and the fullering tool will help you place precise blows that drive the metal away from the eye.

 

The tongs should be holding firmly on the ball-peen portion, again not bothering the eye.

 

You really don't need to spend too much time around the eye once you get the majority of the metal moved forward towards where the cutting edge will be.

 

Did that make sense?

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I made a gutter adze from mild steel and welded on the high carbon bit. The compound curve of the blade might "throw you a curve."

As I recall, I gave the blade a concavo-convex cross-section (from before to behind) in a Vee block with a ball faced hammer. Then I used a wooden mallet on the hot steel to get the downward bend in the blade. Then a little back and forth to fine tune it.

 

Sayings and Cornpone

"If you're not centering, you're periphering."

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Funny you should mention this, I forged one out just the other day.

I just kept the head in the fire at an angle so the eye didn't really get much of the heat. I was concerned about the eye deforming but it doesn't seem to have done so much if at all.

I can't seem to load pics up at the minute...

Andy

Nice andy, i am debating weather or not to just go for it and not worry about srewing up the eye, but i am also pretty new to it and want to get it right

 

This is a question of first building the tools needed to do the job properly, I've found.

 

Assuming you're using a ball-peen hammer and are going to squish down the non-peen end to make the blade, I would first make a fullering tool (a butcher) to further isolate the non-peen end from the eye.  By careful application of heat, you can keep the eye relatively cold and the fullering tool will help you place precise blows that drive the metal away from the eye.

 

The tongs should be holding firmly on the ball-peen portion, again not bothering the eye.

 

You really don't need to spend too much time around the eye once you get the majority of the metal moved forward towards where the cutting edge will be.

 

Did that make sense?

Vaughn that makes sense, im looking into some easy designs for making one this weekend, i didnt consider the eye being taper both ways on the hammer before for a drift, so that would work to keeo the eye safe very nicely. and how'd you know i was using a ball peen lol. 

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I made a gutter adze from mild steel and welded on the high carbon bit. The compound curve of the blade might "throw you a curve."

As I recall, I gave the blade a concavo-convex cross-section (from before to behind) in a Vee block with a ball faced hammer. Then I used a wooden mallet on the hot steel to get the downward bend in the blade. Then a little back and forth to fine tune it.

 

Sayings and Cornpone

"If you're not centering, you're periphering."

frank you shaped the adze then welded a bit on it, or you welded the bit on the did the shapeing?

 

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Nick, this isn't the best angle for it really but you can see I've made a start. I've not finished it yet though. 

 

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I kept the eye out of the fire as best I could as I was worried it would deform. I've managed to keep it pretty much ok. 
 
I look forward to seeing your completed adze. 
 
All the best 
Andy
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  • 2 weeks later...

Here's one I made a while back.  Curling up the claws and forging out the head didn't hurt the eye at all. 

thats pretty nice , i like the curled up claws, and claw hammers are less useful to me, even if i can get ball peins for really cheap.

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  • 2 months later...

So I finally finished up with adze's used claw hammers. They aren't as nicely done as nick's fine example above but functional none the less opted to cut the claws because I'm lacking in the tong department for now. Honed to a fairly sharp edge for now one with an inside bevel and one outside.

post-56851-0-03686600-1420849465_thumb.j

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  • 3 weeks later...

Yep those look pretty nice. I prefer to use claw hammers because they tend to have more meat to them than a ball pein of the same weight.  I have always found ballpein hammers to have undersized handles, which if you OCCASIONALLY hit too hard, tend to break... Very annoying;-)  Less muscle, better technique;-)

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Yep those look pretty nice. I prefer to use claw hammers because they tend to have more meat to them than a ball pein of the same weight.  I have always found ballpein hammers to have undersized handles, which if you OCCASIONALLY hit too hard, tend to break... Very annoying;-)  Less muscle, better technique;-)

im glad i ended up using claw hammers instead, they turned out pretty decent, still need to give em a proper try on carving a bowl with em, but from the prelimnary test they seem to work decent, and i havent gotten them razor sharp yet, coulda left the claws on for a bit more weight, but they still have pretty good bala tnce. i want to make a couple wider ones now, these around 2 inches across, i want to try for something near 4, just figuring out what to use or how to acheive it.

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Well, Nick, you got me a hankerin' for an adze.  I keep saying I'm going to forge one and never do, so I decided to fish or cut bait.

 

I found an old mason's hammer in my box of bits and pieces.  The head is 1x1x1.3, roughly, and is already isolated from the eye, so that will become the blade.  I'll cut off the chisel end to make some flint strikers.

 

The plan is to split the head to half thickness and fuller it wide so I can get a 2" blade with a bit of curve to it.  No telling how long the blade will be, but I'd rather have too much iron out front than not enough.  

 

IMG_2072_zpsed70d468.jpg

IMG_2073_zps77f6d8b7.jpg

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