Thread: Sawsmithing hammers

Originally Posted by rob streeper

That's why I immediately grabbed one. I wonder how the prices will trend over the next days and weeks.

Cheers,
Rob

Rob

I wonder too, but like you I ducked in quickly . I missed out on four auctions this morning so I was looking out for a win.

Thank you Lightwood for the heads up.

Regards
Paul

Originally Posted by Bushmiller

Rob

I wonder too, but like you I ducked in quickly . I missed out on four auctions this morning so I was looking out for a win.

Thank you Lightwood for the heads up.

Regards
Paul

Paul,

I suspected Peter's post above would motivate purchases. I'm really looking forward to reading the book and discussing it's contents.

Cheers,
Rob

I knocked together four more of these today.

These all have the 1.75" diameter 4140 heads. Overall lengths range from 13" to 15" and masses from 923 to 1,014 gm. The hardness measurements range from HRC 43 to 46.

Hammers no's 4 to 7.jpg

The longest handled hammer, rightmost, has an enlarged handle eye and was tempered to 43 for use in hot forging.

Hammer no 7 eye.jpg

The shorter handled hammers are all HRC 44 to 46.

This'll be interesting to watch: RARE Old Atha Blacksmith Sawyer's Bladesmith "Dog Head" Saw Hammer VG | eBay

$170.50US with five hours and change to go.

Rob

Those hammers look good: If anything, less unweildy than the long doghead hammer shown in the Ebay listing. However, I have never used one so I can't speak from experience.

Regards
Paul

I also got the eyes drilled and partially fitted the handles to these as well today.

gang of seven hammers.jpg

They are from right to 1.5" combination narrow/wide faced stretching hammer, 1.75" combination straightening/stretching hammer, 1.75" combination narrow/wide faced stretching hammer and four 1.5" dog's head tensioning hammers. I'll finish fitting these up, profile the heads and move on to heat treating them.

Originally Posted by Bushmiller

Rob

Those hammers look good: If anything, less unweildy than the long doghead hammer shown in the Ebay listing. However, I have never used one so I can't speak from experience.

Regards
Paul

Thanks Paul. I designed the hammers I'm making to have the center of mass close to the point of contact with the saw plate. They're less inclined to tip than a longer head would be.
The older sawsmithing hammers in my collection are a bit unwieldy in my opinion. When I started tensioning saw blades one of my favorite hammers was a 2 lb. blacksmiths rounding hammer. One face is nearly flat while the other has a slight dome and the head is very short. The domed face works best for me and I've tried to reproduce the shape on the hammers I'm making. The two Stollmeyer hammers came with flat faces and I re-profiled them for tensioning. Some of the antique dog's head hammers I've seen for sale have very flat faces with an abrupt transition to the sides such as the one I linked above. Others I've seen had domed faces, often more domed than I prefer. I assume that the saw doctors modified their hammers too.

Cheers,
Rob

Yowza

Atha bid history.JPG

Been a bit busy but got back to hammersmithing today. These are 1.25" and 1.875" head blanks. The smaller run ~450-460 gm and the larger are ~1,300 gm. Finished they'll lose about 20%.

1.25 and 1.875 heads.jpg

Got another half day to do some fun-work this afternoon so I proceeded with the forming of the smallest and largest hammers in my range (to date).

The first step is profiling the faces.

1.25 and 1.875 heads.jpg

I think I'm going to call these hammers by number. The Number 4 hammer will be on the biggest stock, 1.875" at around 1,200 gm. all-up. The Number 3 will be the 1.75" stock at around 1000 gm. The Number 2 will be the 1.5" stock at 750 gm. and the Number 1 will be on 1.25" stock at 450 gm. or so.

Here are the first #1 and #4 hammers. The heads only are 375 gm. and 1075 gm.

No 1 and No 4 hammers first.jpg

I also picked up this extremely useful self-centering vise. Makes drilling the eyes much simpler.

centering vise.jpg

Rob
Love the vice I've never heard of one before.
If I missed it say so but how do you go about making the eyes
More to my point what method do you use to clean up between the drill holes to creat the oval shape

Cheers Matt
Keep up the good work

Yes Rob

What Matt said, and also the drilling of the high carbon steel is not the easiest of tasks even in the annealed state. Do you use any special drilling technique or special drills. I imagine you need coolant at the very least.

They come up looking extremely smart. Whatever you are doing, keep doing it.

Regards
Paul

I drill the eyes in two steps. First as shown above with a 0.25" bit. The bits I use for this work are by Huot. M35 135^o split point - nothing special that I'm aware of. The second step is with a 15/32" bit. I use WD40 as a lubricant and work slowly. I profile the eyes with an electrically powered die grinder. The burr is 3/8" diameter cylindrical with a ball end. I'll post pictures tomorrow.

I'd never seen a vise like this either. The postman told that one of the mail clerks almost put his back out shifting the box.

yeah
cool vice

There is a 1920 version of A Treatise on the Care of Saws and Knives
available online here:
The B. T. & B. Manual, A Treatise on the Care of Saws and Knives, 1920