Tiny WI Hammer

[Frazer]

I made my first hammer. It looks somewhat ridiculous being so tiny, but it's still pretty cool and I would call it a successful endeavor. It weighs about 1/2 lb and was made by forge welding 3 and a half WI RR spikes into a billet and adding a 1/4" HC steel face on the striking side. I expected it to weigh closer to a pound when all was said and done considering how much WI I started with, but after welding the head of each spike back into the shank, I refined each piece by folding it over and welding it back into itself, and I guess I lost more material to scale and general clean-up than I anticipated. Still, it was kind of a fun side project. If I were to do it again I probably would have done it more like a dogs head hammer with the hole punched further back and added an extra spike to increase the mass.

I love the seamless welds you get with WI. It's just a fun material.

 

Here it is next to my 3# rounding hammer for size comparison. It's so tiny!

[JME1149]

Congrats! Looks good to me. How did you do the eye hole? Punch, slit & drift, drill?

[Frazer]

I made a slot punch that tapered into an oval drift so I could do the whole eye with one tool. Punched the slot from both sides, then drifted it open. It took quite a few heats to do since I was worried about it splitting, but it went smooth enough and the amount of material lost to the plug was negligible.

[ThomasPowers]

I have a number of very small commercial hammers, 2 oz and 4 oz ballpeens.  They are characterized by having very small commercial handles as well so they look proportionate.  I use them for non-ferrous work and they work quite well.  You may want to think about downsizing the eye and hammer handle for your small hammers.

[Frazer]

It definitely looks a little silly on top of the 14" handle. I probably should have selected/shaped the handle to be smaller to match. A can't really make the eye any smaller, but the handle may be something I address down the line. I'm currently using it to make the points on the corkscrews I have been working on, and for rounding out some of the length of the screw. It's so light it really isn't useful for much besides real thin ~1/8" round. And even then maybe I'm a little biased when declaring it's useful at all  

[Marcus_Aurelius]

Looks good to me, I have never worked with wrought, but I always like the look of it, especially for hammers. I have a small hammer, probably around the same size. Its got a handle to match, so it looks proportionant, but once and a while the handle snaps, kinda like a toothpick. 

[ThomasPowers]

I use an extremely light hammer when doing the counter bends on S hooks. I used to use my 1500 gm Swedish crosspein and then realized that I was just bragging that I had the control with it to do small precision work and my elbow was getting all the stress of doing so.  Needing a working elbow more than the egoboo I switched to the very light hammer for that step.

[Marcus_Aurelius]

I did the same thing, I used to use a 2-3 pound hammer for almost everything I did, including the small stuff. But when I started using my miniscule ball-pien for small scrolls and such it became much smoother and relaxing to work. Small hammers defintely have a place in the shop. 

Fraser - I am pretty sure when folks hand engrave they typcially use a hammer of similar size.

[Frosty]

8oz. is a nice size hammer, I have a number of light hammers, 2oz is maybe the lightest. I have a decent assortment of tin knockers hammers a few under 16oz. A bucket full of ball peins from 32oz. on down, they're on my buy it list at yard, garage, etc. sales if they're cheap enough and make good gifts for local club member beginners. 

Light semi whippy handles really make the difference for utility. 

Frosty The Lucky.

[Frazer]

Marcus, Wrought is a lot of fun to forge, even more fun to weld. It's like butter. You just have to keep it hot,and for the most part keep your heavy forging on the face of the anvil so the whole piece is supported. It doesn't like to be sheared across the grain so to speak which makes it easy to split, but also means it punches easily, that plug drops right out when you want it to. Great for hooks and anything with holes for mounting or joining or whatever. Not great to draw out thin in my experience, but I'm sure others do this just fine.  I wish I had more of it than I do.

TP, my go to hammer for general forging is the 3# in the picture, but my 2# cross peen and 1.5# ball peen see a lot of use as well. The plan for this one was to be a little bigger than it is, but smaller than my ball peen for the lighter work I have been doing a lot of lately. Like you both said another way, there is no need to use a heavier hammer than the work requires, if you're holding back the hammer while you swing, you're probably using too heavy of a hammer. Something I think everyone is guilty of from time to time. Maybe I'll find more uses for this little guy as have it longer.

Frosty, according to the kitchen scale it weighs 7.375 oz, but the handle is anything but whippy.

[Frazer]

Update, I thinned down the handle substantially so it both looks proportionate and feels much nicer overall.