Drift?

[IowaHarry]

Hi All,

Being new to blacksmithing I am unfamiliar with the concept of drifting. At work I am familiar with the iron workers drift pin. A fairly hefty lump of steel tapering from approximately 1/4 to 3/8ths of an inch at the tip to the fat end near 2 inches being 14 to 16 inches long. I have some fairly large scrap stock I thought I might make into hammers and handled punches. Is this the type of drift I need to do this or is a hammer drift a special tool?

thanks, Harry

[LarryM]

Hi Harry,
Welcome to Iforgeiron. First things first, go to user control panel and tell us where you are located. There might be smiths in the area that can help you get started. To answer you question, the kind of punch you described is a tapered round punch used to line up bolt holes in building frame work. A hammer drift is more oval, or square shaped with a short taper. It is driven into the hammer head from both sides to make the handle hole, that is taper in both directions. When the handle in installed the wedge will lock the handle to the head. hope this helps


Keep hammin':)
Larry

[easilyconfused]

It sounds similar. A blacksmith drift is thickest about 1/2 to a 1/4 of the way from the striking end, being tapered slightly on the striking end as well as the punch to let it slide all the way through without catching, as opposed to a punch which is only tapered on the end not being struck. The thickest part is the size that you want the hold to end up at when hot and shinking to the cold size should be taken into account.

[Tyler Murch]

The eye really makes a jammer, so it's important to have a good drift. ppl prefer all different shapes and sizes of eyes. my hammer drifts taper roughly 1/16" - 1/8" per inch, and the length of the eye is twice the width. most of my hammers have a 5/8 x 1-1/4 eye. hammers get bigger, but your hand doesnt

[mike-hr]

You should figure out what handle you like. Do you buy a handle at the hardware store, or make your own from a chunk of firewood? You make your drift to approximate the handle. There are a couple threads related to this recently on the site, one is under 'drifting a hole' in the blacksmithing section, the other is in the knife section under 'tomahawk' I think.. Check these out, and feel free to ask more questions.

[irnsrgn]

You don't drift a hammer eye, the handle won't stay in, the eye in the hammer head is an hour glass shape, larger at the entrance and exit so as to wedge the handle end into the head.

[Ratel10mm]

I was given an interesting alternative philosophy on this one Irnsrgn.
The chap who taught my tool making class reckoned on drifting the heads of hammers & other tools that needed handles, and then having one handle that he made of Ash to fit them all. He figured that way he had less to carry at demo's.
I thought that in principle it seemed a workable idea, but that I'd go for a tomahawk fit so that the hammer / hot sett head wouldn't come flying off!

[IowaHarry]

That's great info guys, I think I get the drift Ha! I kill(file) me. I am currently working on making a handled punch out of some 1 inch round. It's just scrap so I have no idea what flavor steel it is. So it sounds like I am going to need a slitter before I need a drift. Just one more thing to put on the list of things to make.

It looks like the snow has stopped, time to head out to the shop.
thanks, Harry