I apologize if this is not the correct forum for this. I purchased a 35 pound sledge hammer this weekend. I never saw anything like this......just looking at it makes one's arms hurt just thinking about swinging it, really.

Has anyone ever seen a sledge as big as this? Would anyone have any suggestions on what this monster would have been used for? The elderly fella I bought it from said he bought it at an auction many years ago. The auction was selling off many items from a lumber company that closed up. I suppose I could assume that it was used in the lumber industry........but for what.......who could swing it?

The sledge head appears to be forged without any markings of any kind but shows signs of age with very little use (that figures....). It is old, the handle appears original as has the craftmanship of yesteryear....a flared round collar and the proper wedge in the end of the handle (looks like ash or hickory) to keep the head in place. At this point, I am not able to provide any pictures.

The elderly fella I bought it from said he bought it at an auction many years ago. The auction was selling off many items from a lumber company that closed up. I showed it to several tool collectors and none of them could believe their eyes.

Any info or guesses are welcome.

Ebayer matchlessantiques recently sold a very large sledge (I think it was in the 50 pound range if my feeble memory serves me correctly) for a few hundred dollars (maybe $400-500, my memory really is feeble).


The seller said a lot of large hammers were suspended by a chain or similar device but the one he was selling was built to be swung by hand. It was interesting to hear that info about something I've never encountered before.

thanks Mark.......that's very interesting.

How about posting a picture of the monster?:D

Yeah, where are the pics? I have to see this, I've never even heard of anything like it.

We know those as foundry hammers and they were designed, I think, to break up sand molds after the metal had cooled. The hammers were not swung but rather lifted and dropped. There are still a few around in the foundry corners left over from the old days when men were bigger.

That job is now done by a shake out machine that rattles and vibrated the mold to break up the sand for reclaiming.

The largest one I have is marked 25
I took it to a hammerin and told a power hammer collector in the group I had a 25# hammer with in the truck at the bottom of the hill
He wasnt too impressed

so post a pic some day....what do you plan on doing with it?. If you want to get rid of it, I'd be interested...:)

richard ya planing on makeing a line of 30# sledges or gona swing it
the size of that is massive i have seen them in lumber mills for driveing large wedges breaking up molds in a foundry and mineing for use being dropped on a star drill to hasten work

I used to swing a 30 lb sledge back in my masonary days, back when we did everything by hand, used it mainly for busting up old concrete, it's those kinds of things that put me in the condition I'm in today, blown knees, elbow, lower back and neck.

welder19

I saw someone selling a 35lb sledge on ebay not to long ago. The same guy sells a lot of anvils. I think it had a pretty good price tag too.

i'll try to get a pic.....Thanks for that information.

Sounds like it would have been used more to pick up and drop rather than swinging the darn thing!

That makes alot of sense.

At least that's what a hammer collector I met at a flea market last summer told me. He said that a 50 pound hammer with prison markings on it was kind of the "Holy Grail" for collectors. That sound huge to me, but that's what he said.

In the shipyards they used big sledges to drive the wedges on the building ways. at 35 Lbs it is not to likley you will be swinging that all day. My arm hurts thinking about it.

British chainmakers used to use a 36lb double-shafted sledge called a johnny. I think there is one in use in the Netherton chainmaking video.

Thanks Matt, Peter and Wolfshield.....all great info

When I was in the Air Force we had a 35 lb sledge. We used it to persuade crates to fit onto aircraft pallets. Swung gently like a pendulum moved a lot of weight. We always joked with it but I could not imagine using it the typical way.

Well, actually its funny you should ask... Sorry, been busy swinging away the last decade or more, my hands don't really enjoy typing too much! But, this is who swings a 30lb sledge hammer... Well, mine is 26lbs, I inheirted from my grandfather (on my mother's side, the "smaller" side, my grandfather took a ship alone to America at the age of 8 and grew up in a boy's home in nyc until old enough to check himself out, and he went to work for the railroad for a very short time before realizing he would become a master mechanic and he enrolled in trade school. Graduated in 1921 and in 1945 opened his own mechanic shop (which later added two gas pumps, a used car lot, and a three bay carwash in a building down the street.) He died the year I was born, shortly before I arrived, funny thing, I was born dead.... and my great uncles all think I am his reincarnation! lol. Eventhough we are Catholics...) He stood 5'4" and weighed 140lbs soaking wet at the time he would have been swinging this sucker! Took this video at 3pm, so I was pretty shot by the time I started to film the video that goes with this pic! Its on my youtube channel, well it will be shortly. If your interested in seeing this giant hunk of steel being swung, and even watch me whack my foot so hard I thought I had broke it! lol, just kept swinging and filming! Enjoy. P.S. I am a Masonry Contractor in Upstate NY. My business is "Iannone Building and Contracting," named after my grandfather's old business Iannone's Garage!" This is only one of the dozens of his tools I still use on a regular basis! And, they out perform and outlast new  tools by such a vast amount it makes me sick

Welcome aboard from 7500' in SE Wyoming.  Glad to have you.

I'm afraid that the link did not open for me.

In my experience swinging a large tool like a sledge or a pick is more about controlling its direction and point of impact rather than brute strength.  You let the weight of the tool and gravity do its work and you just guide it to where you want it to go.  That said, exerting that control is a very subtle skill that does not come easily.

"By hammer and hand all arts do stand."

Welcome aboard, glad to have you. If you put your general location in the header you'll have a better chance of meeting up with members living within visiting distance. Telling us the name of your website and or business in one post won't be remembered as soon as we open another one. 

Site rules prohibit posting commercial links unless they sponsor the site, the way around that is to post just the name so we can find it in a search.

I have a 26lb. mason's sledge that works well as a straight pein smithing sledge. If the helper is young enough to be talked into it. No full swings! 

Would love to see the video.

Frosty The Lucky.

I’m looking for a 35 pound sledgehammer to be used in an exercise program. Where the heck did you find it?

If you're not going to be using it as a sledgehammer, all you need to do is get a welder to stick an appropriately sized block of steel (say, 4-1/2" x 4-1/2" x 6") on the end of a length of pipe.