Hammer Dressing

[newbiesmith]

This post is in Glenn's style of show me your..... Basically I'm struggling with a new hammer that I just purchased. Up until I read Hofi's post I was thinking it was a Czech design. But really it's a cheap knockoff of a Hofi hammer (sorry Hofi, I couldn't afford the real one on the rack).

Anyway back to what I was saying. I've moved to this hammer from a small 1.5# ball pein and 3# sledge combination. I didn't perform any dressing on either of these two hammers and actually had better luck moving the metal than I had with this new cross pein.

The way I see it there are two possible causes for my issue. The first being a need to dress the hammer to fit my style. The second is the need to change my striking angle/force/etc..

I'm really hoping it's not the latter since that would be the more complex of the two. Change style/hammer weight/handle length/etc....
It's difficult for me to interpret/visualize the description of "slightly crowned, with the edge of the hammer face well rounded" (George F. Dixon).


I may be overanalyzing since I'm a newbie but I figured I'd throw it out there to get some advice. Thanks.

-Dan

[HWooldridge]

Here are some numbers:

Radius across the face (both directions) - 24".
Radii on the corners - 1/2".
Radius across the peen - 12".

Don't laugh at these figures - get a big compass and draw them on your work table, then lay the hammer down for reference.

You will have to change your style enough so that the hammer can be used on its corners. Once you get loose with the hammer and swing from the shoulder, you'll be amazed how fast you can draw a piece of material - especially if you combine it with a similar radius on the edge of the anvil.

The face of the hammer is primarily for smoothing - most of the work is done with the edges and the peen.

[Dragons lair]

Dan I also opted for one of the 1000g hammers . After a 7-8 week wait I found out as you did we get what we pay for.
I ended up stopping at Big Blu for one of theirs. Now for the good news. For a few bucks and a few hours work you can re work it (handle and head) Would be better to PM me for phone help can walk you thru it.
Ken

[Glenn]

BP1001 Hofi Hammer Technique
BP1002 Hofi Hammer Technique
BP1012 Making Hammer Handles

The BP 1000 series

[hdwarner]

when i seen hammer dressing, i thought it was a recipe from vulcans grill
mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm HAMMER DRESSING

[newbiesmith]

Thanks guys for the info.

Glenn I had seen those posts in the blueprints and that is how I had been using it. But I couldn't make out how the face was dressed. I kept gouging the metal as I was working it.

Dragon, I'll have to drop you a PM. By chance can you take a picture or two of the hammer your referring to? In particular the face and the handle. The handle feels good but I'm a still a little weak from not smithing since I put the forge up for the winter in November.

HW- what do you mean by the 24" radius? Is that really 2/4"? Or are you talking more about working on improving striking.

-Dan

[yesteryearforge]

Dan
If you are going to be at the next meeting ( just ask ) and we would be happy to show = let you try several types / weights / lengths of handles / for fat or skinny hands of most any description that you can think of.
Hofi style
Tom Clark
Jim Poor
Jim Keith
Craftsman
Plomb
peddinghaus / french or german
Jay Sharp
Diamond
Heller
etc , etc , etc.

Mike Tanner

[newbiesmith]

Thanks Mike. I'm not going to be able to make this month's meeting but am hoping to make the one in March. But I apprecaite the offer and will definitley take you up on it. When I was down there I bought, I think a sweedish style hammer for my friend as a birthday present. It had a good feel and in retrospec I wish I would have picked up another one for me as it was hard to part with it the night of the party. Which, now I finally understand why smiths can have soo many hammers.

-Dan

[rthibeau]

I found that the easiest way to dress the face of a hammer was on a belt sander. Rock the hammer back and forth so the belt travels over the whole face, and rotate the hammer as well so that the whole face is sanded smooth with the edges of the face slightly rounded off. This works even with a square faced hammer as you don't want sharp edges hitting the steel. It also eliminates any gouging.

[HWooldridge]

Dan,

Tie a piece of string to a pencil and go out 24" from the point, then hold the string and swing the pencil a few inches so you can see what that large a radius looks like as drawn on a table top. Lay the hammer down flat on the table with the face just inside the pencil mark. That's about how much radius you want across the face.

From a practical perspective, it's easier to simply do what Richard suggests and dress the face on a belt sander. However, I threw out my arcane geometric explanation so you'd have a point of reference.

[bruce wilcock]

the sheffield cuttlers made a hammer then shafted it with slack wedges, before they heat treated the head ,then used it for a while to become ,there own hammer, through use ,then took of the head lightly pollished the face hardend tempered and drove the wedges home ,i still do same .

[mcraigl]

Dan,
Another way to visualize Hollis' suggestion... I take a straight edge and hold it on the face of the hammer. You should have 1/32 - 1/16 gap on either side from the front to back and slight less from side to side. At least that's how I like my faces dressed based on using many different hammers belonging to other smiths. Also, on the pein end, it needs to be almost flat front to back, with a similar crown side to side as the face. I had my peins too sharp for a long time and after watching Mark Aspery pien out material for a leaf and ending with a very smooth surface I had him dress my pein, and it makes a heck of a difference. Not nearly as aggressive, but very much more controllable. Anyway, that's my $.02
McL

[HWooldridge]

McL,

Good explanation - I made it too cumbersome with the math and radii. Comes from working around the machining trade too long. Your comments are much clearer...Hollis

[ergoman]

Adding material to the handle to increase the strike angle? I have done this in manufacturing with heat moldable material. Technically called wrist eversion, its increasing (moving the head of the hammer towards the shoulder) the distance from the pinky to the forearm during the strike, keeping the wrist neutral. Its important to set that angle acute so the force has some room to absorb the shock. The material also significantly decreases the shock felt and is heat formed to your specific hand.

[Glenn]

ergoman
Go to the top of the forum page and click on user cp
Click on edit profile
Go to the bottom of the page, enter your location and save.

We would like to know where in the world your located.

[Shane Stegmeier]

I love Bruce's method of developing a "set" to the hammer face before you harden it. If you are using an anvil at a height that is either too high or too low for you this can be very important. A lot of people ignore the best biomechanical height for their anvil because they can't see, and or just aren't comfortable trusting that they are hitting what they are supposed to be. For light work a smaller anvil set higher is fine, but for heavy work you want your anvil set low enough that your arm is in a nice neutral position at the end of your stroke, especially if you are swinging hard.

As far as dressing the pein on your hammer, that will in part depend on what type of work you really want to be doing. Right now I use a 2# Hofi type hammer made by Tom Clark, it has a blunted and somewhat broad pein, and I like it fine for most types of work. I have a 2# double diagonal pein hammer that I forged out of a cheap chinese hammer, it has a rounded and broad pein as well, and it is great for lots of stuff. But if you want to spread material like to make a shovel, or a swelled round boss on a hinge a sharper narrow pein will do the job better. A narrow pien will spread material better perpendicular to the pein, you can focus the spreading better...

The cow pie apology is very helpful to get people to understand how the steel moves under the hammer. Hit a cow pie with a stick: it divides along the line it was struck. Hit it with a brick: and the pie flys mainly away from the long sides of the brick, and less along the short sides, and only a little at the corners. Drop a square paverstone on it: and the pie will fly away from the sides, and a little bit at the corners. Drop a bowling ball on it: and the pie flys equally in all directions.