Some small hammers I made

george wilson

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H-M Supporter Gold Member
i'm not what you would call a "hammer person",not in the sense of using hammers all the time,but I enjoyed making these for use in the shop.

Hammers can be nicely designed with a little thought,and can be tools that you feel good about when reaching for a special one. These days,you cannot buy a decently made chasing hammer,or a decent looking bulbous handle,unless it's an antique.

I have looked for many years in flea markets,and Ebay for nice old stamp sets that have letters and numbers with serifs,and are artistically shaped. They add the final finesse to your work. In my opinion,bad looking "gothic" stamps (no serifs,no style) can ruin an otherwise nice piece of work.

Some of these hammers(the "chasing" style),were case hardened. The "graceful"ones were made of drill rod,fully hardened,and drawn to a spring blue,leaving them about 55-57 RC. Since they are only for use in silver work,they are hard enough. For hammering steel,I'd make them harder,say,drawing them to a medium brown color. But,these are small hammers. The longest ones are about 12"long,with 1" dia. faces.

In the fully round chasing hammers,the one with the short handle and wider head,was made for driving engraving chisels. It does have a harder face,so as to not get dented up by the steel engraving chisels (which I also make). I like to grip closer to the head for that type of work. Others may do it differently.

The handles of the chasing hammers are ash,stained with Potassium permanganate (KMNO4). It is not readily available these days,though.I guess it could be used in explosives. It certainly will explode of dumped into turpentine. Though it was used for many years by Boy Scouts as a poison ivy treatment,it is really a poison,so I use nitrile gloves. The main reason I do that,though,is because it turns skin dark brown and brittle. It gives a very pleasant shade of brown,though,and I often use it to age wood replacements in antique repair since it oxidizes the wood very realistically,and can be thinned out,with water,of course,to apply the aging carefully and in stages till it blends with the old wood.

The blank head shown is how the head of a "graceful" hammer comes off the lathe. You can rough in the curves with normal metal lathe bits,and use wood lathe chisels freehand to blend the curves. The HSS wood lathe chisels stay sharp longer,but carbon will do. I've made several large PGA trophy steel spinning chucks that I finished with carbon steel wood lathe tools.

After the head is turned,it should be polished,which hasn't been done yet in the picture. Then,it can be put into a milling machine,and the cheeks can be milled flat. Having the round parts polished before milling allows you to polish only the flat cheeks,and thus retain maximum sharp edges on your corners. But,before the hammer is taken from the mill,I drill a hole through the future eye of the hammer,then use an end mill to make it oval. Lastly,I file the inside of the eye to make it bell mouthed at both ends,so that the head will not tend to come loose when it is wedged tight. A wooden wedge works fine. Slit the handle before inserting the handle.

The growth rings in hammer handles ought to be in a vertical plane,but on hammers this small,it doesn't matter much.

These are not hard to make,could be made with just a lathe,and are a nice addition to your special tools that make a shop a little nicer. Sorry about the 2 blurry photos. I'm a bad photographer with an auto focus I can't control,and the camera is out dated,anyway.

blank hammer.jpg IMG_0625.JPG IMG_0629.JPG IMG_0631.JPG IMG_0626.JPG IMG_0666.JPG IMG_0665.JPG
 
It may not be a tool that you reach for all the time but several is need for the right situation.If a person is going to have several,mine as well have some with style.Those have style and they are classy,thanks for showing and good job----kroll
 
I like hammers :whistle: small ones, big ones, flat ones, round ones, pointy ones, hard ones and soft ones, steel ones, brass ones, plastic and rubber ones. I got em all. There's a hammer for every job in my book.

Nice hammers!
 
George,

I've seen a lot of shop made hammers. Yours are without a doubt the finest and show your true craftsmanship!

Steve
 
Glad you are enjoying the hammers. The chasing hammers were made using a round nose tool for the hollowed areas. Those with light lathes might find it difficult to not have a round nose cutter chatter,most especially in the larger face hammer. I might advise anyone who has trouble with the round nose chattering to first cut out the area you wish to round off as much as possible with,perhaps a cutoff tool,followed by other tools. Then,introduce the round nose as deep as you can to clean up the hollow area. When it starts to chatter,stop the lathe,and pull the chuck around by hand. I just use the chuck wrench because it's handy. This extremely slow RPM you are making,with cutting oil,will let the round nose tool cut without chattering. At least,it worked for me. At the time I made the chasing hammers,I had a 10" Jet lathe,bely driven. I wish I still had it. It would make such smooth cuts they looked nickel plated. Now,everyone wants to make gear head lathes that just do not impart the smooth surface that a belt driven lathe will(at least not any gear head lathe that I can afford!) Some very high quality gear heads like Dean,Smith and Grace lathes will,if you can find one that isn't too worn. My 16" Grizzly leaves teeny echoes of the gear teeth on surfaces. My HLVH is belt driven,but the lowest RPM is 135,too high for doing this type operation(with a wide tool).

I don't know if the little HF lathes,or other very small lathes can handle a round nose tool at all on drill rod. But,you could just finish out the recesses with a round file and wet or dry paper(needed in any case).
 
would these be called chasing hammers by chance. maybe for silver smithing Oh, what do you know if i had read the words instead of just looking at the pictures it would have answered that.
 
The shorter style hammers are called chasing hammers. The "graceful" hammers are just.....Hammers.:) One is flat faced,the other curved. I want to get to making more,with flattened cross peins. My wife has commandeered my small hammers for her jewelry making. Somehow,they are hers now!!:)
 
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