"graceful " Hammers I Made

I" ll have to stick to ash,i guess. Not that I'll hit with a chasing hammer hard enough to break the handle. And,if I DID,I'd need to go back to SCHOOL!!!:)
 
I have heard Hickory makes better handles because it transmits energy in a sharper motion, and because of this is also better for your hand in use.
 
george wilson said:
The heads are hardened fully,then,I draw them to a beautiful fire blue color,leaving them at least 52 RC.
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Very inspiring. Something I think should be on my to-do list. Can you elaborate on your heat treating process. Is the hammerhead mass getting outside the capabilities of a torch? Did you use a HT oven yourself for hardening & quenching? Was there any HT issues like distortion with some of the head (thick head into thin neck & then into thick face again..).
 
I make a corner from fire bricks and just use 2 Mapp gas torches to get the small hammer heads plenty hot.

It is too much trouble to drag out the gas knife maker's furnace,or to hook up the electric furnace for a small job like that. My "blacksmithing area" is too small,and I have to drag the gas furnace outside because of the exhaust. The electric furnace is not convenient because it takes too long to get up to hardening temp. The 2 torches do it in minutes.

If I have a more critical job to do,like making a set of punches and dies for my wife's business out of A2,I'll take more trouble to get the ideal temperatures. I need those to last the rest of her career as she is 19 years younger than I am,and I'll get too old to do stuff eventually.
 
If its convenient one day, I'd like to see a top view pic of your head retention trick. Is it a friction inserted wedge? Matching wood to handle material or metal?. I've heard different views - purists don't use glue but others recommend epoxy or whatever not so much for impact but eventual wood shrinkage. How did fix yours into position?

**edit** I'm probably misinterpreting the pictures - maybe the handle goes in from the underside & there is no retention wedge?
 
I just used wooden wedges,made from the same wood as the handles ONLY because the wood was at hand. Might be better to use metal wedges,but they will all get a bit loose when the humidity really gets low.

No good trying to glue a head in place. The glue line would soon fracture when using the hammer.
 
Andre: The handles on the 2 hammers shown were made of hickory. But,the set of 4 new handles were of ash,because that is what I had on hand. And it is beautifully close grained,too. I scrounged some ash left overs from the museum's Millwork Shop(behind the scenes) scraps left over from making new parts for a carriage. They made the whole burgundy colored carriage that is still rolling around the Historic Area back in the 40's or 50's. I made the ball bearing holding tubes inside the wheel hubs,and the brass hub bands many years ago, when they did upgrades. The ball bearings cannot be seen,and they make it possible to operate the carriage all the time without daily greasing of the axles. I usually don't keep hickory or ash on hand as I mostly am interested in making guitars.(Although the Telecaster I'm building has an ash body as is traditional. Old Mr. Fender must have gotten a deal on a bunch of ash planks. It has never been a wood you ever see on guitars. As a youngster,I knew it was ash,but could not figure out WHY. You can get away with a lot of stuff on a solid body. And now,players seem to ascribe some of the Fender tonality to the "swamp ash" bodies. They also used alder,which is a very cheap and softish wood,on their less expensive models,or painted ones. Players are a superstitious bunch,really,when they know little about the construction of their instruments. Gibson Les Pauls,on the other hand,are made of the more traditional maple,or mahogany. Great sustain is also ascribed to them. I say it is just how THICK the solid wood is!! Well,hard helps.

I doubt that either hickory or ash handles have much effect on hammers this small anyway. Pecan is a good wood,very like hickory,if you can find it. They used it in North Carolina furniture factories,and I got a big bunch from one to make all of our work benches from when I was teaching shop,and had to start from SCRATCH!! Those kids did not drill holes or abuse their benches after they made them!! It was a good lesson in pride of accomplishment!! GIVE them factory made benches to work on,and no telling what they will do to them.
 
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