Suitable steel for hammer heads

[Ivan WintersParticipant @ivanwinters22691]

A friend of mine has asked me to turn him some hammer heads. The hammers will go on wooden shafts. Some will be for metal panel work others for woodworking.

Suggestions for appropriate grades of steel will be appreciated. Also any suppliers that colleagues can suggest?

[Ivan WintersParticipant @ivanwinters22691]

[Mike PooleParticipant @mikepoole82104]

Cast steel is the often used material for hammer heads, it hardens and has good impact resistance. Using a high carbon tool steel could make a dangerous tool if the hardening leaves it inclined to chip.

Mike

[Roderick JenkinsParticipant @roderickjenkins93242]

Posted by Mike Poole on 01/12/2020 12:19:27:

Cast steel is the often used material for hammer heads, it hardens and has good impact resistance. Using a high carbon tool steel could make a dangerous tool if the hardening leaves it inclined to chip.

Mike

Surely that's just a question of tempering. Tubal Cain in "Hardening, tempering and heat treatment" suggests a temper at 230 -250C for hammer heads. That's dark straw. So I suppose that silver steel is the stuff to use but heat treatment and tempering must be for times appropriate for the thickness of the hammer heads.

Rod

[SteveWParticipant @stevew54046]

I’d be a bit careful to temper appropriately. My stepfather had a hammer chip embedded in his finger caused by a RAF erk whacking two hammers together. Stayed with him all his life. If I had to make a special shape hammer I think I’d try grinding an old hammer head to suit.

[StueeeeParticipant @stueeee]

I used square gaugeplate (ground flatstock) when I needed to make an apparently unobtainable shape of panel beating hammer earlier this year. Once the ends were pressed on, I TIG welded them, filed them to shape, gave them a polish and tempered the ends to dark straw. It's been working just fine so far.

[not done it yetParticipant @notdoneityet]

Beware of your friend’s intentions. Is he using them as ‘Birmingham screwdrivers’ in his woodworking activities? I stick to mallets when actually working with wood, using a hammer for little more than inserting panel pins.

[JasonBModerator @jasonb]

I think the American home smiths like to use 1045 which is similar to our EN8 which will harden but not quite as much as gauge plate which is fine as you are not after a cutting edge..

I'm happy to use my "Birmingham screwdrivers" in the form of Japanese hammers to drive my hooped Japanese chisels in the workshop though when on site tend to use the side of the Estwing to drive my European style chisels as just about every other carpenter does.

Worth noting that the Japanese hammers tend to only have the faces hardened not the whole head, the really expensive ones also have steel faces fire welded to iron bodies which help reduce vibration going down the shaft.

Edited By JasonB on 01/12/2020 18:54:47

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