Hi,

Have this small hammer head I found at the scrap yard. Liked the look of it and it does look hand forged, but if for a specific task I do not know. It sparks at least medium carbon, lots of fireworks, even though it has mushroomed on each end a bit. Any thoughts on that. Could I reshape it to do something else like punch holes. Any ideas.

Cheers David. 

 

 

Looks like the hammer I had to peen the scythe when I was a kid. 

Yes if it was made from steel you can re-work it; you are a BLACKSMITH!  It may need heat treat and I would drift that round eye oval.

7 minutes ago, ThomasPowers said:

I would drift that round eye oval.

Flattening the bulging sides will lengthen out the eye a bit; drifting will complete the job.

I have a cross pein with a round eye. I just bought a hoe handle and re handled 4 hammers with it...

Could just grind the mushrooming off, put a handle in it and start using it. Client I had once was always telling me "simple is better". But did I listen?

Thanks,

Those are good tips. So I think not to change it much from its intended use. Make it into a cross peen on one side and a round peen on the other. Might be handy for smaller jobs. Also will give flattening the sides of the hammer a go. Just something new to try out and did notice some of the hammers I got have small eyes. Might make one drift and in time re-widen them all to the same dimensions. Probably use rebar. That's all I have available for now that is thick enough. Went out to the farm today to grind some of those hammer heads from the scrap yard. Also started shaping a handle from a dry branch. Got it into a good shape using a machete and then remembered the sand paper disk I had for the angle grinder. Wow only a few minutes later and a huge amount of material gone. This was totally new to me, there is a first time for everything.  

John in Oly, WA, That is very true for many things. Sometimes it is just good to get started. 

Most locations have a preferred type of tree for tool handles; can you tell us what is used there?  Just idle curiosity. I've used locust in Ohio, (from a tree hit by lightening!), Osage Orange and of course Hickory here in the USA.

Am nearly 100% sure it was jack fruit. But will double check today. The wood is pretty hard, but I must go to the local lumber place and ask them what they use around here. Might be a good idea. 

My wife and I like jackfruit; but of course we don't see the wood here in the USA.  Asking the local people is a great way to get in touch with the local traditions.

It really is a great food, like the taste as well and gives a lot of strength.

Am sure now it was jack fruit wood. Asked the local carpenter shop down the road. Also he recons teak would be a good wood. He also told me etti tree. Did a search and it is the strychnine tree, from what I can tell. Have my doubts about it as it is very poisons and I read even breathing in the dust can kill you. But don't hold me to it. There is often also a problem with language barriers. My lack of Malayalam. India has a lot of languages. One has to be extra careful here as the cycling of soil nutrients is very fast near the equator. That makes for tons more bugs, which in turn has a lot of plants evolve quite some nasty poisons. Even burning the wood for my forge could end up not great

Edit: OK did some more searching and the spelling he gave me was Etti, but is actually Eeti - Indian rose wood.