[TheForge] Hammers

Wed May 14 18:53:01 2003

Randy,
 There are many factors that make a hammer feel right.
In earlier times when steel was costly and hard to get, hammer design tended
towards dual function heads. When the head is balanced so as to be able to
hit your work with either end of the hammer, your hand has to control the
head attitude completely thru the swing arc.
If the hammer face is rounded, a strike slightly off angle strike is not
very noticeable.
The main differences between a good blade hammer and a general blacksmithing
hammer are:
I make the handle hole with a 0 to 15 degree forward rake. the rake angle
tends to reduce wrist pronation when forging the blade taper.
I move the hammer head center of mass forward of the handle hole to cause
the hammer to track more truly thought the swing arc. Imagine the hammer is
a dart. Once you release it, it will orientate it self towards the target
because the weighted head stabilizes it in flight. This is a lot less tiring
than the death grip necessary to control an unbalanced hammer.
The face is ground dead flat with an edge radius to minimize hammer marks in
the blade. Every ding you forge into a tough steel blade will have to be
laboriously smoothed afterwards, unlike most forged pieces where hammer
marks tend to be a desired effect.
One of the techniques that I learned from Don  Fogg was to "dial in" the
hammer face.
This will improve the hammer blows of any flat faced hammer.
After you have developed good hammer control and can consistently hit where
you aim the hammer, take a piece of lead sheet and lay it on the anvil face.
 Hit the lead with several blows and then examine the face marks.
If one side of the hammer face consistently leaves deeper depressions,
gradually grind the face until the marks are equal.
Another critical factor is the handle geometry.
The hand grip should fit your hand size, and the handle neck should be
thinned down to allow handle flexing to minimize the amount of shock that is
transmitted into your arm and shoulder.
Finally match the hammer weight to your ability to control it completely and
still move the metal where you want it to go.
Chuck

----- Original Message -----
From: "R.C.Mundt" <[email protected]>
To: <[email protected]>
Sent: Wednesday, May 14, 2003 2:02 PM
Subject: [TheForge] Hammers

Does anyone have a recipie for making good feeling hammers?  Quite  a few
years ago I wanted a soft hammer so I made one outa a piece of cold rolled
and ran brass on one face, It really turned out nice, so nice that myself
and others used for everything under the sun , so my hammer is beat to
pieces right now.  This was just an accident, I don't know beans about
making hammers.  Why is one hammer balanced and another one nothing more
than a club?
Randy Mundt

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