A local technical school closed down and they auctioned off everything.   I bid on a few things, but only won one.  With all these added to the hammers I already had I should not need to buy another hammer in my life.  There are 2 Blue Point ball peins that are both marked 16oz, but one is definitely bigger and heavier than the other.  Then their are the 2 identical "engineer's hammers" that look like rounding hammers to me.  I looked up the model number and they are 2.25 lb.  Wood handles will be had for those.  There is also a brand new Vaughan 16oz claw hammer with a real nice wood handle.  Anyone know where to get a handle like that?  The chisels are all identical.  Any ideas what to do with those?

Amazon has them. Type in octagon hammer handle. My dad always liked those type of handles. I have a couple of his hammers from back in the 50's and 60's when we re-modeled the house. I've been replacing my handles with them as I need too

Thanks I'll check Amazon.  I really like that handle.  Wanna try one for forging 

My bookmark and the link are broken but "House Handle Company" carries handles for any and everything. It came right up in a search.

Frosty The Lucky.

 

They work well for me

I make my own forging hammer handles based on Uri Hoffi's handle with my own tweaks. I use straight grain 5/4" hickory lumber. 4" wide boards allow me to get two handles from the same 10" - 12" of board. I taper them from about 3/8" wider than the hammer eye out another 3/4" at the end.

It's almost a classic slab handle but the taper causes the user to reflexively tighten their grip if the handle slips at all making a really light grip easy to maintain with zero chance of losing the hammer.

I round the finger side of the handle gently and only break and smooth the edges of the thumb side. This makes it easy to tell which face of the hammer is aimed at the work without looking so I can spin my hammers around at the top of the swing to change faces. It's also a bit of flash for demos. 

I made the first couple with a knob end thinking it'd be a good way to stop a hammer that had slipped my grip without realizing just the slight taper eliminated losing a hammer. I still put a little knob on the ends as sort of a legacy. That and I don't want to make a new template, this handle works really well without "fixing" it.

The pic below one with near perfect taper, freshly installed in a straight pein hammer I'd converted from a 32 oz. ball pein.

Frosty The Lucky.

 

That's a pretty good score. I think the chisels are block layers or stone mason chisels.

I can’t control the wind. All I can do is adjust my sails. ~Semper Paratus~

I have House Handles bookmarked. They are not too far from us and if it uses a handle they will have it, kinda neet place to just brows around in.

[link removed]

That's a nice handle Frosty.  I don't have the tools and or skills to do the wood work.  I'll check out house handles.  Thanks for the tip

Ahh, I'm no wood worker, I use a reciprocating saw and my 2"x72" belt grinder, I used a sandpaper disk in my 4 1/2" disk grinder on the first couple. The first couple had a lot more taper but the one pictured is more than enough. There's no real need or purpose for the knob on the end but it's become sort of a legacy thing. Could make them with a ruler, compass, hand saw, wood rasp and sand paper. This one has my second template, The template. I'd planned on re-handling hammers as old ones wore out or broke with tapered slab handles. 

I select and buy single and double jack sledge, and axe handles.

 Frosty The Lucky.

 

4 hours ago, whitewill1412 said:

I'll check out house handles.

House has the following note at the bottom of their main page:

Quote

AA GRADE SPECIAL REQUESTS

Handpicked Handles - We will add $2.00 per handle to your order.
No Lacquer - We will add .50 per handle to your order
Octagon - We add $1.50 per handle to your order.
The octagon is done by hand, not by machine, therefore will not be perfect.  Each octagon handle will vary and are not returnable.

Their "Blacksmith Hammer Handles" are straight-sided, but their "Engineer Hammer Handles" have a nice taper to them.