Ok, had a old ball peen hammer, polished both faces and then after looking at it i decided I needed a sort of cross to do detail work on leaves. Fired up the forge and slow soaked her wile it was warming up. 

Had a good heat first blow! Split it rite around the center! Im so bummed...... was a awesome old hammer and I destroyed it. 

Wrought? It doesn't spark like it. More like a mid carbon

Rust down in the crack. Guess it was already there.

Probably an old stress crack that finally let go. There was a post a few days ago about someone's well-used punch that split apart after years of use, probably for the same reason.

Could have sold it yesterday for 20 bucks to a guy. Now I pitch it in the scrap bin lol just my luck. Lol 

It's a insert never seen such a thing!!! 

Have a hammer eye punch now hahaaa! 

Hole goes all the way to the body of the hamner and is has a lot of what looks like small wire in it. So strange 

 

 

 

Wonder if it had a high carbon insert forge welded to a softer body. Never saw one but a possibility.

That's exactly what was done, it was a hand forged hammer, i shouldn't have messed with it i guess.

Wow that is bizarre.

That's sure a new one on me, I'd sure like to talk to the person who made it. I'd have to make a shadow box and hang it on the wall.

Bummer but a cool bummer.

Frosty The Lucky.

Okay, that's more than a stress crack! Weird!

After many hours last night i was able to almost restore her to her former glory. forge welded the plug back in . Still has problems and im not sure it will hold. Was a experience though!!

Took till 3am n im feeling the pain today. Longest quick n dirty hammer mod ever!!!! Expensive hammer now hahaa

I was wandering when the blacksmith stubborn would hik in and you would just weld it back to gether, lol

That was going to be my suggestion. Looks like you did a good job to me. Think I might try that on the next straight peen I make.

6 hours ago, Charles R. Stevens said:

I was wandering when the blacksmith stubborn would hik in and you would just weld it back to gether, lol

Yeah, it didn't take long after that last post I decided I had to fix it. Started making a new plug out of d2 and just couldn't make it work. So i went ahead and used the old plug.    Blacksmith stubborn is a real thing   

5 hours ago, Irondragon Forge & Clay said:

That was going to be my suggestion. Looks like you did a good job to me. Think I might try that on the next straight peen I make.

Oh great, after this post there will be lots of hammers out there to confuse the next generation hahaaa! I love it, let's start hiding messages in our tools. 

Like the smith that made this hammer. His was, you have alot to learn grasshopper lol

  I won't be parting with this hammer for some time. Thanks man!

I have several steeled hammers, generally the colour change alerted me to it before I could rework them. Mainly from a flea market in Columbus OH.

6 hours ago, ThomasPowers said:

I have several steeled hammers, generally the colour change alerted me to it before I could rework them. Mainly from a flea market in Columbus OH.

I will definitely catch the next one, I had never seen or knew they existed. So i didn't pay much attention. Maybe this post will save a few noobs from my experience

Well even as late as the American Civil War steel cost 6 times as much as wrought iron so there was an economic inducement to economize on it's use.  (Some folks though that a wrought iron body was superior in how it transmitted energy or just "felt" in use. Sound familiar?)

On 8/7/2017 at 9:48 PM, ThomasPowers said:

Well even as late as the American Civil War steel cost 6 times as much as wrought iron so there was an economic inducement to economize on it's use.  (Some folks though that a wrought iron body was superior in how it transmitted energy or just "felt" in use. Sound familiar?)

Yes, Thank you Tomas!