Blacksmithing for Beginners - Hammer Geometry

Blacksmithing for Beginners - Hammer Geometry. Discussion and demonstration about how I shape my forging hammers.

[@tubbysnowman]

Brilliantly put. "It's easier to reshape a hammer than an anvil". I'll have to remember that

[@livefreeordie9041]

Thank you sir. You are helping me learn a very useful skill, and keep it alive for others to come!

[@Kahoona741]

Great video, I got great information out of your videos, thank you

[@AmateurForger721]

Great video! I help out my schools blacksmithing club and this type of video really helps me teach them simply by you explaining the concepts so well and then I can demonstrate in person with them. Thank you!

[@khaki.shorts]

Your school has a blacksmithing club? How many people go to your school??!!

[@garethbaus5471]

@@khaki.shorts my school has a blacksmithing club, but it is a college with about 3000 students.

[@scottleft3672]

i know its spelt CHampfer....but its pronaunced SHammfer....potatoes potartoes...lol....its norman french like chivalry.

[@SERB_Milan]

What about welding a piece of leaf spring to the top of the hamer? To make hiting surface tougher.

[@mossyhollow3732]

Great info. For punches, chisels and stamping I use a fully annealed drillers hammer. I learned this from jewelers. The face gets dented on each blow but it really grabs the hard steel you are hitting. Just clean it up now and then just like you showed us. If you mushroom your tool (hard on hard) it may break off cause an injury. Thanks for continuing to share the knowlege with us.

[@kiksforge]

Very nice, i have a few el cheapo hammers i bought from a hardware shop that i have ground and reforged to more desirable shapes, saves messing around with eye punches and all that jazz, especially if its for hot forging, keep up the good work

[@dracobruhma]

Welp...another thing i have to be aware of in my shop

[@hermanswartbooi1850]

Thanks sir i learn and understand your trade beter than before and its very interested

[@NJBeltCimmerian89]

A very insightful video, thanks. I've noticed that with some sledgehammers, be they old or new, the manufacturers have often neglected to temper them to the desired toughness. I'm assuming that this is merely due to the makers cutting corners, however, could this also be an intentional feature?

[@df-intheshop330]

It probably is just the quality of the tool. Either how it was made or the quality of the steel. Another reason could be that it was quite common for people to think it was ok to throw a big hammer in a fire to burn out a broken handle. The idea was that the handle would burn enough to make it easy to remove before drawing the temper but of course their was a lot of ways that could go wrong.

[@templaboom]

great vids, do you know if I could reforge old very mushroomed swage hammers, hot cuts etc back into shape?

[@df-intheshop330]

Not usually. The mushrooming is caused by the metal cracking and breaking away from the main body so it can't simply be reforged back into shape. The only way to save it would be to cut off the broken end and weld a new head to the existing tool. If it was simpler to make a new tool they would do that instead.

[@templaboom]

That makes sense, thanks for the reply.

[@netoortega]

Please do a video on hammer types and patterns !

[@df-intheshop330]

This video describes the hammers that I use. I really can't comment on anything else. Moving or shaping metal involves using the face geometry that I've described here. There are regional and personal preferences for how these faces are arranged but that is all they are. It doesn't change the science of how the hammer works.