Not being able to actually do any hammering I decided to modify my 4lb. hand sledge into a slightly smaller cross peen hammer, using my 2 week old angle grinder.

Don't be fooled by the image, I was slightly more zoomed in on the modified hammer.

NEAT!!!!!!!!!!!!! I like it!

That's a good lookin' hammer you've got there, Larry.

Is there any function in the channels behind the face, or is that a purely decorative feature?

Larry if you have just started smithing and you are useing a 4# hammer much at all no wonder you have a pinched nerve. Even if you are strong, and use a hammer in other ways, blacksmithing is different and will work you differently than framing up a house, or drywalling. Start small, focus on good technique, being relaxed and upright and build the strength while you focus on doing everything right, the strength and staminia will come... Just pushing through with an iron will, will just wreck your body, ask me how I know;-)

This has not been my regular hammer, my regular hammer is a 2lb. This is one that I occasionally use for upsetting.

The grooves were to to help lighten the face side so it's not too unevenly weighted. It's still front heavy and heavier I think then I'll want to use regularly, but I like the way it came out.

clever idea Larry! Removing some stock from the 'face' side should help make the hammer better balanced. Especially important when you use the 'cross pein' side.

Nice work larrynjr. It looks really good, creative way of lessening the weight.

I see a fashion statement in the making.

Thanks everyone for your comments, the only only scale I have is a bathroom scale and it doesn't seem to be very acurate at that weight so I still don't know how much I have actually removed. I'd like to get it down to at least 3lbs. but I need to come up with a better way to get the exact weight!

Three sources for a small accurate scale:

1. Take your hammer to a produce department in a grocery store. They have scales for weighing fruit and vegatables. Stick your hammer in one of those plastic bags if you are concerned about cleanliness.

2. Use a postal scale. The small ones are generally up to 5 pounds.

3. Older hardware stores generally have scales for weighing nails or seed.

I like it.

Larry,
nice job! I did a similar thing, but with a little cheapo three pounder . I cut (using a metal cutting blade in my skill saw) the angles to make a diagonal pein and then cut a guesstimated amount off the face.

I tuned the balance of the head with a flap-disc on my (then relatively new) 4.5 inch grinder. when I demo-ed at the NC state fair, one of the other smiths "borrowed" my hammer for an hour and a half.



This one weighs in just a bit shy of 2 3/4 Lbs. and is my favorite hammer to use.

If nobody will let you use a good scale or you feel industrious, you could always rig one up and use water as your balance if you do some math since 1L of water = 1Kg.

Pault17, that looks really great. I'm concerned with cutting a chunk off the face itself to reduce weight. Will I need to reharden the new face?

I will probably spring for a postal scale or something along those lines at some point but I'm not overly worried about it at this point.

Larry,
I didn't do any re-harden or re-temper as of yet. I have used it to forge even re-bar with no marking on the face on pein.
Yet. . .
I initially did it with a cheap hemmer so there would be no serious loss if it didn't work out.

I remake hammers like that all the time and do retemper them just to be sure they are like I want. As to balance, I flap disk some off the sides of the face end just to clean it up and make the whole hammer head smooth to remove the casting marks.

Is balance just the matter of feel in your hand, or is there somewhat more scientific approach to it?

A true balance would be having the exact same weight on each side and end of the eye. In actual practice though, most people wouldn't be able to tell if it was off a little bit as long as the handle felt comfortable in the hand. Ball pein hammers appear to have more weight in the face end than the ball pein. To the extreme, the cutlers' hammer has most of the weight in front of the eye.

The grooves were to to help lighten the face side so it's not too unevenly weighted. It's still front heavy and heavier I think then I'll want to use regularly, but I like the way it came out.

Nice. I was wandering if the groves served a purpose, or if they where there for looks. It looks really good.

fill a container with water right to the brim, gently submerge the hammer head and catch the displacement in a measuring jug - x the cubic inches displaced by.283 , subtract a bit (say 2 cubic inches for the less dense handle) et voila ! the weight in lbs.

dust the hammer lightly with wd40

or dont worry about it to much - its how it 'feels' that matters.

my only concern, and i dont really want to say it, is that with a hammer that heavy i would be worried about a corner of the face breaking off and hitting someone with the grooves that close to it.

i dont want to say it because the hammer looks so great! i seem to remember a hammer in the gallery with copper wire wrapped around the handle just under the head, rthibeau's i think. you got any more plans for it?

At this point it still feels heavier then I'd want to swing for any length of time. I think I'll have to cut some of the face off to drop any more weight. I might be able to grind some more from the slope of the peen too.

It is definitely front heavy, it is rounded at the eye and if you balance it there then let go of the handle it immediately rolls to the face side of the hammer.

Ok, I got crazy with the angle grinder and have further modified my old 4 lb. hand sledge into a much more maneagable 2lb. hand hammer.

Once again the modified hammer was more zoomed in the picture than the originals.

You started with 4 lb and got down to 2 lb, so where's the other 2 lb for a second hammer??? :)

Mostly in steel dust on the front of my shirt! I used the grinder and my chop saw to cut the front of the face off at the base of the first groove and also to cut a piece off the peen, I haven't tried to weigh those pieces yet, maybe 1/2 lb total though.