Antique wrought iron hammer restoration?

[Benona blacksmith]

I found this old spanish(?) Crosspeen sledge hammer that is missing most of its steel face. Would you guys restore it to a useful life?

[JHCC]

Four options:

1. Keep as-is for historic and aesthetic value.
2. Restore the steel face for regular use.
3. Cut off the remaining steel face and use as a soft hammer for hitting punches and other top tools.
4. Cut apart and use the wrought iron as stock for other projects.

Which one is best is entirely up to you.

[Benona blacksmith]

Well I'm bored and cant think of anything to do in the shop so i think i will go for option 2. I like option 4 as well. I do have plenty of sledge hammers in the shop and this one weighs in at 12.5 lbs which is a bit heavy for my liking. 

[ThomasPowers]

Why do you think it is Spanish?  I have an old 16# cross peen that looks a lot like that and is an American.  Also  have you tested it to see that it's wrought iron?

If so I'd reface it on the face and leave the peen alone.

[Latticino]

Gonna take a lot of heat to get a 12# hammer head up to forge welding temperatures, even the lower temperatures you will need for forge welding on the HC face.  Also, sledges take a lot of extra abuse, so the face weld needs to be very solid.  Then you have the fun of heat treating it...

I'm with Thomas, what makes you think it is wrought?

Personally I'd likely go with John's Option #4 if it was wrought and Option #3 if not, especially if you already have a number of striking sledges, but each to his own.

[Benona blacksmith]

Spark testing is how I figured its wrought. The reason I thought it was Spanish is because of an old advertisement I seen somewhere that showed a hammer just like it with the eye punched back farther with the weight forward and stated it was a Spanish pattern hammer?

I chose to reface it. Here it is before welding.

 

[ThomasPowers]

Velázquez and Goya both painted pictures show weight forward hammers being used for forging; but they were common all over Europe and the UK as well at one time.  Most of the large crosspeens I own are also not balanced as they were primarily used for the flat face and didn't need the possible "twist" having a longer back end of the hammer can produce.

Just an idle wonder;  I wonder if the move away from doing heavy forging work with sledges; while retaining their use for things like breaking rocks and driving wedges drove the change in popular designs?  (Heavy forging work being moved to the powerhammers.)

Anyway. I would DRESS THE FACE BEFORE WELDING!  That much mushrooming means there are probably a number of cracks in it that you don't need to retain in you hammer after welding!

I hope you clean it up and do an etch to show the WI afterwards; it will be a bragging hammer for sure! (I like to find the hammer handles made from the root burls and so have a curly pattern to them for show off handles.)

[Benona blacksmith]

I still have more forging to do. I just about ran out of charcoal but mostly ran out of energy.  

Its definitely wrought iron though. Up close you can see the grain of the wrought. I'm going to get more charcoal today and work on it early tomorrow morning before I have some guys come over for some "lessons". I'm more letting them use my equipment if they bring the fuel. I dont get paid for it. It's more getting the experience of working with beginners and teaching them a thing or two to see if I even wanna do any classes later in life. But anyway here is the pictures of where it sits now. 

[Irondragon Forge ClayWorks]

It's looking good, just a little more refining and dressing should do it.