[TheForge] The Cats head hammer Hype

Tue May 13 16:35:01 2003

Chuck ...excellent points. I agree having the right hammer is critical to both arm health and production.  I tried using an unbalanced hammer that looked great and it liked to drove me bonkers. It came off the rebound like a knuckle ball. Now it just lays in a pile on my shop floor.

Tools are what we use to ply our trade. Having the right tool is critical. Like Mark Twain said about words, and I quote from a flawed memory, "The difference between the right word and almost the right word, is the difference between lightning and lightning bug."

I'm happy to pay a craftsman for his skill in providing me with the perfect tool for my needs. 

I've used a 2lb 2oz hammer made by Bill Bastas of Austin, Texas for a few years. It has perfect balance, slightly curved face with nice radius on inside, the fuller is fatter and bigger angle than any store bought. He is an accomplished smith and he knows what smiths need in forging. He puts on a neatly crafted bois d'arc/orange osage handle that will take year of abuse. Consequently, I use his $100 hammer and feel like it is worth every dollar. BTW, I just ordered a second one, 2lb. 4oz hammer today. 

I'm generally outspoken, so I stick my neck out sometimes. Some folks on here are too. But problem is, when you stick your neck out and say something that is uninformed (ignorant) or just totally lacking in intelligent thought(stupid) you should expect to get shot down. 

Reynolds

 --- On Tue 05/13, Chuck Robinson < [email protected] > wrote:
From: Chuck Robinson [mailto: [email protected]]
To: [email protected]
Date: Tue, 13 May 2003 09:27:46 -0500
Subject: Re: [TheForge] The Cats head hammer Hype

Most common, commercial hammer patterns are drop forged in hammer dies. Wham -Bam and they are done; some are finished better than others and some are heat treated better than others. They are relatively inexpensive to produce in large quantities. Any one who has hand made a hammer on the other hand, can attest that, if made properly, it is a pretty difficult and time consuming to make a good non standard pattern hammer. Try drifting a handle hole in a hammer head some time and see how "easy" it is to do it exactly right. A crappy hammer can also contribute to physical problems like tendonitis. Buddy Leonard is a master blacksmith/farrier in Louisiana who from time to time makes cat head hammers for friends and blacksmith auctions. His hammers often sell for between $200 to $300 at these auctions to professional farriers who understand how much difference a good hammer can make as a tool they use daily in their work. I hand forge 
 custom made bladesmithing hammers in the $80- $100 range for serious bladesmiths who understand the value of a well made tool. I made my first blade hammer during a Don Fogg sword class at CFS. After pounding away on a katana with a cross pien hammer for a few days I could hardly lift my hammer, one of the other students let me try his old "dog head " cutlers hammer. The difference was so amazing that I spent that day and most of the night regrinding a railroad spike hammer to rebalance it for blade smithing. Over the past few years I kept refining the design to improve the hammers performance. If a novice smith questions the cost of my hammers I strongly encourage him/her to get a mass produced hammer and use it for a while. For a part time or recreational smith, these hammers are often an adequate tool. Chuck ----- Original Message ----- From: <[email protected]> To: <[email protected]> Sent: Monday, May 12, 2003
 11:26 PM Subject: Re: [TheForge] The Cats head hammer Hype > Farriers will pay absurd amounts for hammers but these guys use their hammers > a LOT and they make a good buck, they don't have a lot of expensive equipment > to buy and a $100 hammer is cheap if they can work faster with it, or if it > keeps them healthy. > > > --- StripMime Report -- processed MIME parts --- > multipart/alternative > text/plain (text body -- kept) > text/html > The reason this message is shown is because the post was in HTML > or had an attachment. Attachments are not allowed. To learn how > to post in Plain-Text go to: http://www.expita.com/nomime.html --- > _______________________________________________ > http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/theforge > theforge mail list group photo site is > http://www.photoaccess.com > Login: [email protected] > password: anvil > ___________ > >
 _______________________________________________ http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/theforge theforge mail list group photo site is http://www.photoaccess.com Login: [email protected] password: anvil ___________

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