[TheForge] Farrier Hammers

[Saint Phlip]

Jerry Smith wrote:
> Saint Phlip,
>
> Thre one that I used in the past was round in shape
> with a slight doming for the hammer face.
>
> Jerry
>
> --- Saint Phlip <phlip at 99main.com> wrote:
>   
OK, what you want is a "turning hammer" as farriers call it (It helps 
"turn" the shoe- in other words, bend the 1/4" X 3/4" or 1" bar stock 
the hard way). Smiths call it a rounding hammer. Has a mildly domed face 
on one end, and a flat face on the other- most farriers who use them 
regularly will mark the handle in some way, so they know by feel which 
face they're hitting with. I like them, because, like the Uri or Czech 
hammers, they're balanced, and the weight is (usually) all close to the 
handle- as has been mentioned, this helps quite a bit with avoiding 
having the hammer twist in your hand, and an oval diameter handle is 
quite enough to prevent twisting and blisters.

Shouldn't be terribly expensive, if you look around- otherwise, the urls 
to Kayne's 
(http://www.blacksmithsdepot.com/Templates/cart_templates/cart-detail.php?theLocation=/Resources/Products/Hammers/Rounding_Hammers
or to NC Tools (http://www.nctoolco.com/tools.shtm ) will get you by for 
considerably less than $160 ;-)

I lucked out on mine- wasn't able to afford a new hammer, at new prices, 
so I'd been haunting the flea markets looking for one, and one of my 
favorite tool booths saw me coming, and GAVE me one ;-) The guy gets old 
hammers at yard sales, and wherever, and cleans them up and re handles 
them- this one he hadn't worked on, and since I insisted I wanted it 
NOW, what did he want as is, just gave it to me ;-)

BTW, the other type of farriers hammer is shown by the ones below the 
turning hammers on the NC site. They look rather like an oddball 
standard claw hammer, but in this case the claws are designed to catch 
and twist off the excess horseshoe nail before you clinch them over, to 
set the shoe.

Saint Phlip