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hammer temper


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have just finished a diagonal peen hammer and would like any tips for hardening. So far I have drawn a temper on face and peen to a light purple But feel this face could be harder. Will it 'case' harden with prolonged use?
would appreciate any comments thanks paul.

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Case hardening, immersing it in high carbon materials at high temps for a length of time---sounds like you mean work hardening it and no it won't do a good job of hardening the face (either one).

With out knowing the details of what alloy and how the heat treat was done it's hard to guess what would help.

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yes, sorry i did mean work harening! but like you say, ThomasPowers, this is the wrong road.
The hammer is actually an old lump hammer which i have reshaped, so difficult to give exact details of steel.
Before tempering, the whole head was heated to a cherry red then after quenching face and peen I Polished a spot on face and peen edge and at desired colour quenched whole head . Am i being impatient ? should repeat this process until i get desired result ?

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So reheat/quench and draw to a dark straw this time and see if that's a good hardness for your hammer. Standard procedure for unknow "junkyard" steels; though we often suggest you try it hard first as you can then re-temper softer without doing the whole redhot heat/quench.

Better soft and forgiving that a load of poorly bound shrapnel though!

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yeah thanks for the input everyone. Starting to think maybe jumping the gun a bit! after using hammer a bit am getting used to the 'softness' and actually quite like it. Think i might make a few more and experiment a bit with my hardening technique.

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