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.
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.