Hello everyone, 

 

I often enjoy browsing this forum for tips, inspiration and to have a look at the gear people make and acquire, but this is my first time posting. 

I got an interesting hammer today from an old fella who lives down the road here in the central goldfields of Victoria, Australia. 

I would describe it as a forward weighted ball pein I suppose. It weighs roughly 2.8kg (6 pounds) and measures 200mm (8") in length and 50mm (2") across the face. 

There appears to have been a makers mark at some stage that has since worn away. 

I just wondered if anyone has come across one like it before. The second image is where I believe a makers mark once was. I should have placed something in the photos for scale as it is much bigger than it appears there. 

Thanks, 

T

 

Welcome aboard T, glad to have you. If you'll put your general location in the header you might be surprised how many folk live within visiting distance.

That appears to be a plate hammer used to straighten and form steel plate. I have one similar around 8lbs. in the shop.

Frosty The Lucky.

Thank you for the warm welcome and the info, Frosty.

TD

I got two of these from a local retired blacksmith and he kindly told me what the tools were I was buying. Still havnt found a use for them personally but they were from a job lot and they are good hard steel so I'll be keeping them.

I've heard them called "Boiler Maker's".

I once ran across a crate of WWII surplus hammers that looked a lot like that; but may have been smaller.  Still had the sticker on some of them Hammer, boilermakers 1 ea, and they had the broad arrow stamped into them and were date stamped. All except the 2 I kept went to quad-state over the years.

There is also that tool maker whose symbol looks rather like and A and a T melted together that might end up looking like that.