October 5, 20169 yr Only information about this hammer was issued by the army during the 1950s weighs about 4lbs cheers
October 5, 20169 yr No clue on the maker. A "dog's head" cutlery hammer. Good for blademaking, and I've heard of using them to work on saw blades. They always feel a little funny to me with all that weight forward, but a lot of people love them.
October 6, 20169 yr Author 7 hours ago, Nobody Special said: No clue on the maker. A "dog's head" cutlery hammer. Good for blademaking, and I've heard of using them to work on saw blades. They always feel a little funny to me with all that weight forward, but a lot of people love them. If I get this one, this will be my second dog head hammer. I've got a 2.2 pound dog head hammer from Glen from GS Tongs. It does take some getting use to it.
October 6, 20169 yr Albert Craven (the last blade forger in Sheffield) is shown using a doghead hammer in this video.
October 6, 20169 yr Author 3 hours ago, JHCC said: Albert Craven (the last blade forger in Sheffield) is shown using a doghead hammer in this video. England's Sheffield, Germany's Solingen and Japan's Seki... Blade capitals of the world!
October 6, 20169 yr 4 hours ago, Peter Bui said: England's Sheffield, Germany's Solingen and Japan's Seki... Blade capitals of the world! You left out Toledo in Spain. And Damascus in what is now Syria. And........
October 6, 20169 yr Author Ah it was a spur of the moment when JHCC mentioned Sheffield England and so I thought about those 3 places....
October 6, 20169 yr If you get it you'll want to radius the edges and maybe crown the face a little. Beautiful looking hammer. Frosty The Lucky.
October 6, 20169 yr All our army stuff (Australia) has used that same arrow head type mark as well. It would appear to be some sort of universal military symbol.?
October 6, 20169 yr No Jack it's not universal, It is the Broad Arrow mark of the War Dept / Ministry of Defence. It was also used by Commonwealth Countries and Australia Defence Dept does indeed still use it.
October 6, 20169 yr 1 hour ago, Jackdawg said: All our army stuff (Australia) has used that same arrow head type mark as well. It would appear to be some sort of universal military symbol.? I have some trench shovels, US type dated 1942 that have that arrow symbol. A military collector friend told me those items were US made for the Lend-Lease program during WW2. I don't know if Lend-Lease went into the 1950s, I always assumed it ended with the war but the arrow stamp matches the 42 dated shovels I have.
October 6, 20169 yr Author So it's definitely associated with the military then by the looks of it. Thanks fellas
October 7, 20169 yr 2 hours ago, Peter Bui said: So it's definitely associated with the military then by the looks of it. Thanks fellas Yes, the Broad Arrow (or "pheon") is a heraldic mark that was first used by the Office of Ordinance (later the Board of Ordinance, then the War Department, and finally the Ministry of Defense) in the 17th century, possibly as a borrowing from the coat of arms of Sir Philip Sydney. It has been used to mark military property ever since, and it's actually illegal to use if without permission. In the American colonies, the Broad Arrow was used to mark trees set aside for use as masts by the British navy. Resentment over the Crown taking possession of such valuable timber was actually a contributing factor to the American Revolution (at least in New England, where such trees were more common). The first colonial flag (flown at the Battle of Bunker Hill) bore the image of an Eastern White Pine. One hears rumors that there are still a few Broad Arrow trees standing in the Maine wilderness....
October 7, 20169 yr Oh, we had trees of the right size down south, but the big pine mast trees were often too far from deep water ports to be useful. What we did have along the coast was oaks with bent limbs that made perfect ribs, and cypress for planks.
October 7, 20169 yr Author Oh ok cool the hammer is still in good condition over the past few decades, it's had a hard life.
October 9, 20169 yr May I commend to your attention the wiki article on the broad arrow: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Broad_arrow Including the history of it's use for British Government property and the restriction of it's use ("Similarly to hallmarks, it is currently a criminal offence in the United Kingdom to reproduce the broad arrow without authority. Section 4 of the Public Stores Act 1875 makes it illegal to use the "broad arrow" on any goods without permission")
October 10, 20169 yr 20 hours ago, ThomasPowers said: May I commend to your attention the wiki article on the broad arrow: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Broad_arrow Including the history of it's use for British Government property and the restriction of it's use ("Similarly to hallmarks, it is currently a criminal offence in the United Kingdom to reproduce the broad arrow without authority. Section 4 of the Public Stores Act 1875 makes it illegal to use the "broad arrow" on any goods without permission") Oh that just makes me WANT to use it! Frosty The Lucky.
October 10, 20169 yr Frosty; after the little dust up we had back in the '70's I don't think the UK laws apply to us save for ones agreed upon in various treaties.... 1770's of course...
October 10, 20169 yr Flouting laws that don't apply is a symbolic gesture without consequences I'm willing to risk. Haven't arrows and arrow heads been symbols of the military and war since they were invented? As in which way the eagle is facing? Frosty The Lucky.
October 11, 20169 yr Author On 9/10/2016 at 3:12 PM, ThomasPowers said: May I commend to your attention the wiki article on the broad arrow: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Broad_arrow Including the history of it's use for British Government property and the restriction of it's use ("Similarly to hallmarks, it is currently a criminal offence in the United Kingdom to reproduce the broad arrow without authority. Section 4 of the Public Stores Act 1875 makes it illegal to use the "broad arrow" on any goods without permission") Section 4 of the public stores Act 1875.....ohh umm gee
October 11, 20169 yr Just remember to mark your friends with the broad arrow using a permanent marker at their going away party for their trip to the UK!
October 12, 20169 yr My "other" job is being a timber framer and here in the northeastern US I occasionally see colonial era boards that were cut out of the King's pine and then had fake dados cut into them so to a casual observer it would look like several smaller boards rather than one very wide board out of a gigantic illegal tree!
October 27, 20169 yr I understand that the ban is on putting the mark on someting not on using a marked item.
October 27, 20169 yr Here in proto America trees for use as masts for war ships were marked and protected as belonging to the crown's navy. Using one so marked for other uses was against the law.
December 6, 20169 yr We have a few tools in the shop that have the broad arrow on them, I tell the apprentices that they were made by convicts that came out on sailing ships in chains. So far they have all believed me for a year or two.
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