My grandma passed away a year and a half ago and as part of the estate I inherited some of my grandpa's old tools. Among them was an approximately 6 lb ball peen in really rough condition I had been debating. I had been toying with the thought or restoring it but wasn't sure if I should, well this week I decided to do it and to use it as part of my smithing tool chest.

It was rusted to xxxx and both faces were is horrible condition so three hours of grinding and polishing later, and after heat treating ( I heated each face to non-magnetic then quenched in mineral oil heated to 130, and did two tempering cycles of 1.5 hrs at ~450) it has been handled and now looks beautiful and feels amazing!

 

 

I should also mention that this hammer came to Canada from holland with my grandpa and grandma back in the 50's and I believe it was hand forged.

I'm sorry to hear about your Grandfather passing.. Happy you ended up with some of his tools.. Thats an heirloom hammer for sure.. 

 

I'm a little confused as to why you did a heat treat on the hammer though? Were the faces soft? 

I did a heat treat for one reasons, that being that I was dumb and didn't cool the faces while grinding them down and lost the temper, I heated the flat hot enough while grinding to bring it to light blue, was probably close to 625 degrees. Lesson learned, keep your tools cool!

Was he an industrial riveter?  That's a huge ball peen!

Looks like a boiler maker or plate hammer, similar anyway. A boiler maker's hammer is used to straighten and or for plate iron/steel.

Beautiful hammer, family heirlooms you can use are special things.

Frosty The Lucky.

Looks like a 10 pin bowling pin!

It is a bewdy, your grandfather must of had arms like popeye if he was swinging that regularly!

Actually my grandpa was a cobbler in holland, and a car salesman, and tinkerer here in Edmonton. I actually have the old cobblers anvil that he also brought from holland.

Pic of that please. We love pics:-)

Oh yeah, I want to see too!

Frosty The Lucky.

I'll take a pic when I'm at my shop next, it'll be a few days but I won't forget!

A little late but as promised here is a pic of my grandpas old cobblers anvil. It weighs about 10lbs

 

Vain,

That cobblers' anvil is called a shoemakers' "last".

SLAG.

It's the last anvil you'll ever need!

Made from cast iron so don't use a smithing hammer on it!

@SLAG I knew anvil wasn't the correct term but I just couldn't remember what its proper name was, thanks!

And I would never use it as an anvil I have a 98lb Peter wright for that! It is a shop decoration/door stop/occasional tripping hazard.

Originally, the "last" was the wooden mold over which the cordwainer would stretch the leather to shape the shoe, and the term is still used for this kind of interior mold. The metal kind is a later development and has a different function, so I can't shake the feeling that there's a different term for it. Any cordwainers in our number?