Hello all! I reached a milestone today in my blacksmithing career- my first hammer.

Made from 1045, about 1.5 square, 3 inches long. I forged to shape on my press, then normalized twice. 

I have yet to grind, harden or temper, but I would love some feedback on how I did!

The eye is about 10 degrees off of square, but I'll keep practicing!

Looks like a good forged hammer. You'll find out how you did when it is done and you use it.

Looks good to me.

Looks good. Clean and simple. If the eye is a bit off, you can correct that when you fit your handle. Just set your hammer handle along the centerline of your hammer.

Also with a diagonal peen, it's nice to have a pair. The other with the diagonal going the opposite direction.

 

 

Or a double with each face going the opposite way to the other.

2 minutes ago, ThomasPowers said:

Or a double with each face going the opposite way to the other.

I plan to try my hand at all of the styles I have come across.  Hammer making was always a dream of mine, and it's exciting to see it coming to fruition.

Not meaning to diss your nice work, but technically speaking, I'm not a fan of diagonal peens. My go to is a simple cross peen. Reason is, I'd rather move my iron to the proper prospective than add two hammers to my tools to do the same thing. 

Same here, I have several diagonal peens and never use them, a lot of times, I just angle the cross peen hammer on small stuff.

I think the diagonal pein was more out of curiosity than utility. It works well, but I agree that a cross and straight pein make up 90 percent of the work

Lol, I don't use a straight peen for the same reason. I'd rather move the iron under my cross peen than reach for another hammer.

Again, I'm not knocking these tools, just stating why I don't use them. If I had a regular job that would benefit from any tool, I'd have it and use it. Without a doubt, A diagonal peen is a cool tool to make, and that can be reason enough to forge one. 

It's actually an old farts vs. new tricks thing more than anything else. I use cross or straight pein as necessary. The straight works better on long tapers, etc. I can address the work in a more comfortable position where the cross requires a greater correction of the stock. The cross pein is in my hand a lot more than the straight pein, it's the more versatile and accurate for a number of common tasks.

It's a matter of taste and what works for you. I've never tried a diagonal pein so have no hands on opinion.

Frosty The Lucky.

2 hours ago, Frosty said:

old farts vs. new tricks

Actually it has nothing to do with being "Old and in the Way" or new tricks. It has all to do with how I use the other end of my cross peen... The flat face. The first step to hammer control is to be able to hit that flat face flat on the anvil. The next step is to start using the side edges of the flat face as well as the flat. Rotate the handle just a bit in your hand and you have mostly flat and a little edge. Go full bore and you are using mostly edge and very little face. As I work back to the transition, I drop the face, thus using more face as I approach the transition. Thus I use the flat face as a straight peen and a flat face. This means that my cross peen hammer serves three purposes: a cross peen, a straight peen with an infinite number of angles, and a flat face. If you apply this to a straight peen, you have a straight peen on one end, a multi-angled straight peen/fuller, and the flat face.

Make sense? "Old and in the way" is a great ole album and still on my phone so I can play it whilst in the car.

10 hours ago, anvil said:

"Old and in the way"

I can't believe they wrangled Vasser Clements into playing on it. My love for bluegrass came via The Grateful Dead. I'm from KY and grew up thinking of bluegrass as old people music until I hit my teen years. 

Pnut

All you can say is,,, "Great"  Music.  How about a "great" warning for all blacksmiths? " I ain't broke, just badly bent". 

I’ve used an angled peen and prefer it. All my hammers are either ball peen or cross peen, but I bought a small hammer head of a type whose name I can’t remember. It is what a ball peen would look like if you were to squish the ball flattish. I twisted it from a cross to and angled peen. Not all that useful since is so small, but I use it occasionally.