Hammer Handle Designs and Problems

[Glenn]

This material and discussion was split from another thread.

 

[Ranchmanben]

Always scary when your hammer head comes off on your back swing. 

[JHCC]

Or on the downswing. 

[Ranchmanben]

22 hours ago, JHCC said:

Or on the downswing. 

Ha! Good times. 

I went full rabbit this time. I was in the middle of drifting a hole and, uncharacteristicly, completely froze up not knowing where it was going to come down. Landed a few feet behind me. 

So when do we show off our new handles?

[John McPherson]

Some of the usual suspects were doing a striking demo at the 4th of July steam show, when the head of an 8 pound slegehammer flew +++THRU+++ the crowd to hit the back wall of the shop with a bang. Everybody froze, then stopped to check the heads on every other tool in the shop.

[JHCC]

7 hours ago, Ranchmanben said:

So when do we show off our new handles?

Still needs to be charred, oiled, and waxed. 

[jlpservicesinc]

JHCC and Rancherman,   while those are very nice looking hammers.. I keep seeing the same problem with the forging and handle fitting..   In a previous post someone showed a handle snapped at the head.. (Rancherman)

This type of failure on a new handle is simply because the hole is to small    And/or the fitting of the handle leaves that sharp demarcation between the handle and head..  Completely remove the wood to form a straight and flexible shaft below the head or make the hole in the hammer larger to accept the handle with no obtuse handle angle.. 

The area of the handle leading into the head has to be spread over a longer gradient..    With this type of design the head/handle will fail prematurely.. 

There is a ratio of punched hole size in hammer heads to handle diameter..  It became a common sense thing over the years, but it seems it has never been mentioned in any of the information I have seen on any of the BB or AS videos..  

No offense to anybody but the ratio for maximum life in the hammer to handle IIRC is like 1.7.. I can't remember the exact ratio but for some reason this comes up as the first guess..  Might be 1.2-1.7..    

[JHCC]

The square shoulder on the original handle was definitely a problem, and that’s been eliminated on the new.  While I like the looks of the swelling below the hammer head, thinning that part out to distribute the stresses makes sense. I’m away on a business trip for the next couple of days, but I’ll take another look when I get home.

[Marc1]

Am I seeing things or are both eyes in those hammers too small? 

Oh ... I see ... didn't read the answer above.

Short of forging the hammer again, (bad idea) an air driven die grinder would take good care of opening that eye up. 

[JHCC]

Mine's certainly on the small side. If thinning the handle doesn't help, I'll have to think about what to do next. Reforging the head would be possible, I suppose, but maybe enlarging the hole with a die grinder or filing (which would presumably necessitate annealing before and rehardening after) would work.

[jlpservicesinc]

Die grinders work great either with a stone (hardened steel) or a burr for unhardened eyes..     I don't want to be nit picky  but I always leave my eyes soft.. I only harden both ends..   FYI, there is a ratio for the part receiving the handle and there is also a ratio for where the wedge or top side of the handle..  This might be where I'm getting the 1.2 from.. 
 

It's been many years since I was involved with this and I will be at some point doing a Hammer making video and it will explain it in depth.. But for the time being here is a picture..

 

The ratios were based on my preferred hammer handle cross section..  Today I prefer a more evenly lengthed handle than the bulbous handles with lots of curves..  A full tapered handle works as well. Retangular with hard edges removed.. 

The french and swedish hammers are here to show what i definitely do NOT like.. Icky.. 

My 4lbs you can see the handle to head transition is nearly straight.. And then my 2lbs  which the handle is nearly 30 years old and loose but has yet to come off.. LOL..

I am not a fan of having a Does foot or any foot on my hammer handles..  I can feel where the ends are by size and if my hands are that tired that I can grip the hammer, I just grab a smaller hammer.. 

The monster straight peen which I use in the Hinge series is nearly straight with no taper.. 

 

And lastly..  The taper at the top of the head if you get much above the 1.2 ratio the wood has a hard time expanding enough to fill the void leading to loose handles.. It's a mistake I made on the 2lbs hammer so handles while they don't break loosen up very quickly.. 

Every hammer I have ever bought I have redressed the eyes on.. 

There is also a side taper which is slightly less than front to back taper.. 

I also experiemented with  Depth of taper and about 50% of head depth is about correct.. for a sq cross section like the regular hammers..   The squashed center sections  are done that way to increase the amount of handle contact with the wood thus offering more support for the heads..  This 50% ratio for from bottom to top then increases from the bottom to 60 or even 70% up maintaining that 1.2-1.7 ratio.. This increases the amount of hammer handle surface area and transition to be made longer and stronger for a given handle size.. 

[Ranchmanben]

I’ve noticed that most farrier style rounding hammers, my go to, have smallish hammer eyes. Not sure why that is. This two pound is my primary hammer. I got 4ish years out of this handle and accidently backed over it with a tracked skid steer once about 6 months ago. It might be unacceble for some but I’m pleased with the time I got out of that handle. 

[Charles R. Stevens]

There is a difrence between hand sledge handles and blacksmith handles, Ben. Hand sledg handles are much thicker, and to me lead to fatigue, wile a black smiths handle is a bit willowy in comparison. Second, farrier rounding hammmers tend to be 2# hammmers, And compared to a 4# hand sledge that takes a slimmer handle. Look at ball pein hammers in comparison. They all have relatively slim handles. Look at a 2# rounding hammer next to a 32oz ball pein. Same head mass, same eye size. 

JP, might have to move that little tidbit to the tools section under its own heading. A descusiin of eye shape and eye size in relation to head mass. Even eye shapes (strait sided, ovel, round)

[ThomasPowers]

I like a terminal swell as I was taught to hold the hammer loosely and a swell will keep it from slipping out of a loose grip.  On longer handles I also like a "curvy" handle as there is a comfortable spot to choke up for certain uses and again use a loose grip.  

Different strokes for different folks!

[jlpservicesinc]

Take it for what it was/is..  Free.... 

I agree these probably should be moved to its own thread..

Because something is factory done a particular way doesnt mean its the best.. it simply means it meets the needs of consumers for a given time frame.. this is what happens with nearly all commercially made products.. that and most handles are pre processed or off the shelf..  especially today..  my farrier supply as well as most hardware stores carry the same type of handles for a given hammer style..

I have vintage staight eyed hammers..  they are ok nothing to write home about... again there are methods..  people do what they do.  Information from trial and error leaves more insight for others to make there own decisions.

Again i shared eye shapes for those who might want more info..

Handle shape, length or thickness as mentioned as my preferred is just that.. Only took me 30 years to figure it out for myself.

I have noticed that smiths as well as farriers who have been at it awhile have a tendency towards thinner vs thicker with much less curvy then the handles shown on the commercial handles..

My main hammers all have nearly the same shaped handles.  Only difference is eye size.. all the hammers except Thor are the same length. 

These were shown for shape and the transition area at the handle/head junction. Not as an example of handle shape to follow..:)

My vintage Heller  welding hammer takes a ball peen/engineers handle its 2lbs.. i bought 3 off the shelf at true value hardware 20+ years ago.. cheap, easy and fast.. i still dont like the handle  as much as the first pic..of the engineers hammer.

Charles i consider a 4lbs a hand hammer.. lol..

[ThomasPowers]

You mention an important concept:  factories don't do things the best way; just the way that is cheapest and can be sold in large amounts.

I have trouble getting students to realize they *should* modify their factory bought tools to suit themselves...and many of them are mechanical engineering students!

[jlpservicesinc]

Thomas, true that..   The precept that something is made and is perfect is something that happened sometime ago.. It's one of the great things about being a blacksmith.. I can make anything into anything that pops into my mind..    Back in the 80's I had a few problems with factory handles failing as well as the heads coming loose from the handles.. It's what led me to to the research and I also discovered a buggered up eye, not smooth will hold a handle better than a well finished eye.. 

It went against everything I thought about as a finished item..   The only hand made hammers I have left are my Farrier driving hammers..   The guy who was my mentor hated my driving hammer because of the handle shape..  

[ThomasPowers]

The eye where a handle rotted out in place can have  a lot of "tooth" when the loose rust is removed too.

[khmiller]

i'm new to all this and not a farrier, but i did have the suspicion that commercial off-the-shelf original handles are (almost) all chinese and not really made with any craftsmanship in mind.  like gloves - chinese hands just aren't, on the average, the same as euro-caucasion hands.  

i'm "restoring" an old ball peen, only 11oz, that belonged to my wife's grandfather.  i'm a hoarder and can't stand the idea of tossing it when it's ~70yr old handle broke.  my problem is that i've found a replacement handle but have no idea what the difference in eye size of "BT" vs "TT" is.  and can't find it anywhere.  i've done a deep dive into oval, flat, etc, and greatly appreciate the thought put into ratios of tapering etc.  Craftsmen can tell you why a design or technique is as it is, rather than just "because that's the way we've always done it".  heck, i can always do things just as wrong as anybody else when the vast majority of time - they don't even know why they do something the way they do.

so - oval "BT" vs "TT" - any ideas, or does it really not matter since i'll need to fit the handle with some shaving/sanding anyway.

thank you for any help.

[BillyBones]

khmiller, welcome aboard. If you would please fill out your header. Let us know where in the great big ol' world you are. General location, not exact address. Many questions here can be answered by region. I could say go down to Bobs hardware and get a good quality hickory American made handle, but if you live in Romania there are not many Bobs hardware stores there. 

Handling a hammer is one of the most talked about and argued about subjects there are. 

BT or TT, that is new to me. TT i have seen for abbreviating "Tru-temper" which is a brand name. My method is get a handle that is close to what i want then sand, file, cut what ever to fit the eye. I may be an odd ball here but the store bought engineers handle is a perfect fit for me, just remove the slick finish is all i need to do to one. 

Anyway if you have not yet, go to the "Read this first" and read it. Fill out the header. Get out to your shop and make something beautiful. Then post pics for us. Stay safe and keep it fun. 

[ThomasPowers]

Yes chose a handle slightly larger and fit it to the eye; I use a farrier's rasp with a golfball stuck on the tang.  For older tools there is NO standard for the eye; each manufacturer would choose their own.  If you go back to hand made hammers the range of handle sizes is amazing.  I try to keep a broken sledge hammer handle on hand to be able to carve it into the needed size and shape for a hand hammer handle.

Now for a fancy handle I try to keep a couple of store bought handles made from the base of hickory trees to get the wavy pattern or have split out billets from Osage orange and draw knifed to size and shape.

Now out here in the big dry I have to let store bought handles "season" for a year before using them.  So I tend to buy several when they are on sale or I find a source of good cheap handles---I like buying "seconds" that have cosmetic issues in areas where I will be rasping them off anyway to shape them to my hands.