Just finished making a plane hammer

[Todd Ferrante]

I recently picked up my first wooden plane (http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?t=113587). When I got it I didn't really know how to adjust it. Web research turned up some nifty plane hammers, some for purchase and others home made. Some of the nicest I found were the ones made by Chester Toolworks (http://www.chestertoolworks.com/planehammers.htm). I made a hammer of my own roughly patterned after their design.

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3598/3618447706_ca5ab29df5_o.jpg

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3647/3618447740_c331472201_o.jpg

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3616/3617626381_1143d64614.jpg?v=0

The materials had all been laying around my shop for awhile. I've had the spare hammer handle for years, and the brass scrap was just waiting for a nifty project. The wood is cut from a carved sailfish I picked up from an antique shop for $5 because it looked to be carved from pre-embargo Rosewood. The head was turned on my Taig mini lathe both with metal cutting tools and also hand turning tools. The wood is attached to the brass with a 1" piece of steel bolt epoxied in tapped holes in both pieces. The handle hole was milled on the milling machine. The handle is slotted and pounded with a wedge of the same wood as the hammer face. Both faces are crowned and the corners rounded to prevent hammer marks on the plane parts. Machine marks were polished out with fine emory cloth, scotch brite and finally buffed with a cloth wheel and polishing compound. A coat of paste wax finished it off. It's so shiny I'm going to hate hitting things with it.

Todd F.

[Robert Rozaieski]

Very nicely done and you picked very good inspiration! Dave (sole proprietor & toolmaker of Chester Toolworks) makes some really nice stuff. I'm sure he will chime in here as he's one of the moderators of the hand tool board.

[michael I anderson]

Nice job ,it's so shinny and now you want to smack something with it.

[Jim Koepke]

Sweet, maybe you should make a wooden sleeve to put on the edge of the blade so you will not leave marks on the hammer from doing lateral adjustments.

Funny side note, every once in a while, you will see mushroomed blades from metallic planes that some old timer, back then, tried adjusting with a hammer.

jim

[Greg Crawford]

That's really beautiful Todd. Now, you have to make an ugly one that you can use:-)

[george wilson]

I hope the wooden head doesn't split. Maybe if you turned a hollow brass cylinder,and plugged it with the wood it couldn't split,even if the cylinder had 1/16" thick walls it would support the wood,which should be wedged in tightly.

When I am in the junkyard I find nylon or delrin cylinders up to 2" dia.. They make good shop soft hammers,though not as pretty. When they get marred,I chuck them in my lathe and face off their faces again.

[Dave Anderson NH]

Very nicely done Todd. Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery and I definitely feel flattered.:D

[Bill White]

WAAAAAY too nice to beat up on stupid old planes.
Bill ;)