[TheForge] Dewalt new hammer and sledges

[Rob Fertner]

All my handles are wood. I've even switched hammers from fiberglass handles
to wood. I admit the carbon fiber handles look cool, but on the off chance
you do break one, how do you go about replacing it?
I've picked up old hammers at estate sales, flea markets, etc over the years
and reconditioned them. Then I sell them dirt cheap to members of the club,
particularly, the new guys. The faces and peens are reground
and crowned. I replace the handles as necessary.  It's amazing the level of
abuse I seen on hammers. A lot of cracked handles, but worse is the damage
to the hammer head itself. There may be a few examples where you could argue
maybe the heat treat was too hard and there was chipping. But most examples
of bad hammers are due to abuse of the tool and a lack of respect for the
tool. Maybe you could look at the cheap Chinese hammers as disposable, but
most of the old hammers I find were American made good quality tools, some
even were European made. A lot of the hammers I've found were salvageable,
and a bunch were either not worth trying to salvage or have been reduced to
scrap metal. An obvious disregard for the tool.

Rob
Wichita, KS

-----Original Message-----
From: theforge-bounces at mailman.qth.net <theforge-bounces at mailman.qth.net> On
Behalf Of Dave Mudge
Sent: Thursday, March 22, 2018 11:47 PM
To: Blacksmithing List Sponsored by ABANA <theforge at mailman.qth.net>
Subject: Re: [TheForge] Dewalt new hammer and sledges

As far as I know, TheForge is still active. Maybe there is another site
where people are exchanging ideas and discussing metalworking? I don't
know...
What other forums do blacksmiths favor? We can have a discussion about that.

About the Dewalt hammers, the picture shows someone forging with a carbon
fiber handled hammer and heavy work gloves. Clearly this staged to look
tough to the general (non blacksmithing) public.
I think that you will find that most blacksmiths will want to use a wooden
handled hammer for a variety of reasons. Some of which are; "feed back",
blacksmithing is all about hammer control.
I am sure that the fiber handles feel much different than wooden handles.
Another is "fit", you can sand,
file, carve and grind a wooden handle to "fit" your particular grip. Many
blacksmiths like wooden handles that are flat on each side and rounded top
and bottom. That gives one a better grip ("fit").
As far as the heavy work gloves, (forgive me for laughing) gloves put a
layer of insulation between your hand and the "feedback" that you are
looking for from the wooden hammer handle.
The hammer will slip from your grip if you wear gloves thus causing you to
loose "hammer control".
I am sure that the carbon fiber handles are wonderful in some vocations. If
one is concerned with perhaps breaking the handle, then keep practicing
because that one has no "hammer control".

Forgive me if I sound too "preachy" but I have been hammering for a long
time and mostly in an "old school"
manner. I worked on a 4 man crew and we built 5 houses in the old school way
in that the boss wouldn't allow pneumatic nail guns (which were a new thing
at the time). I spent many years as a jeweler with wooden handled hammers.
As a blacksmith I might have 100 hammers all with wooden handles.

dave mudge
Magic Hammer Forge
list mom for TheForge