Flatter

[olfart]

Although this ain't pretty, I believe it will work.  It's my first solo attempt at making a hammer.  The eye is a little off-center, but that's not critical to the operation of a flatter.

The material was an old hammer passed down to me by my dad.  It was made by a friend of his from a piece of RR rail with a pipe handle welded on it,, and it had lived a rough life.  Both faces were mushroomed badly, and my attempts at re-squaring it were not successful.  That necessitated grinding, a LOT of grinding.  I don't have a swage block, or anything else to form the large face of a flatter, so I welded a 2" X 2" piece of leaf spring onto it for the face.

 

[Daswulf]

Looks good and functional to me. Now you just need a third hand to use it. 

[olfart]

I thought that's what they made knees for...

 

[Daswulf]

Works for some things. sure makes walking easier.  

[rockstar.esq]

olfart,  It looks really nice.  What are the rough dimensions?

I've found that large flatters work much better with strikers.  Getting that much mass into motion takes a lot of convincing.  On the other hand, a heavy-ish flatter can be excellent for creating a uniform surface. 

[olfart]

Thanks, rockstar.esq!  The face is about 2" square, overall length about 3.5".  To speed things up I asked my wife to hold it for me "right there", and she drew back to hit the work with the flatter.  "NO!!!"  Just put it right there and hold it flat while I hit it!  Once she got it, it worked like a champ.