Handle for this?

[steven c newman]

A small hammer head, not much of a nail puller. Very small "eye". Needs a handle to get back to work. Ball peen style, maybe? A few pictures:

[Mark Wyatt]

I don't know what it does, but I would have bought it just because it looks so cool!

[steven c newman]

The name stamped on the "claw" is Montgomery Ward & Co. Drop Forged" , It MIGHT be a cobbler's hammer, not sure yet.

[Bill Houghton]

Sure looks like a cobbler's hammer to me. Take it to a decent hardware store and match the eye to a handle. Almost certainly a machinist's hammer handle - ball peen and cross peen use the same handle, if I recall correctly - will fit.

The nails involved aren't very large, so a lightweight handle is fine.

[Rick Markham]

Make your own handle, just use a wedged tenon! Good little use of some scrap!!! quick and easy project, and you can customize the shape and size to what ya want to use it for,

[harry strasil]

Yup, it's a cobblers hammer. Not really for driving nails, its more of a leather forming tool.

[george wilson]

It is really a shoe maker's hammer. The handles are mostly about 8 or 9" long. Straight,oval,no swell,wedge in eye. They are commonly found,no biggie.

Cobbler is a shoe repairman,and he would have used this hammer,too. So,maybe it's both. What the heck.:)

[john brenton]

Quick and easy? I'd love to know your method...I have found making a good hammer or axe handle to fit the eye to be one of the hardest projects. I guess it depends on the tool. I've had some real difficult and inconsistent shapes to deal with. The older axes and hammers are a pain.


Make your own handle, just use a wedged tenon! Good little use of some scrap!!! quick and easy project, and you can customize the shape and size to what ya want to use it for,

[Rick Markham]

Quick and easy? I'd love to know your method...I have found making a good hammer or axe handle to fit the eye to be one of the hardest projects. I guess it depends on the tool. I've had some real difficult and inconsistent shapes to deal with. The older axes and hammers are a pain.

I guess maybe I have had a good bit of luck, in that case. I cut a tennon oversize, and refine the shape with a rasp, lots of test fitting. Then I cut the kerf for the wedge and make a wooden wedge and pound it in with some glue.

Granted I have never had to make a handle for an axe, not sure I would want to find out the hard way that my job was insufficient. I don't think you would swing a cobblers hammer for the fences though. :D

I guess we all have things that we enjoy, that others think is just a PITA or not worth the effort or time. I like having tools that are distinctly my own, not everyones cup of tea ;)

[steven c newman]

I've done before. A rough blank of hickory, a drawknife, and a spokeshave resulted in a handle for a small "Buckeye" ball peen hammer. I tend to like a bit of curve to my handles, Uncle Arthur likes it too. Those blue Estwing handles just slide right through my well worn hands ( Heads up! Oops,too late) so a curved area helps out a bit. I'll look at small ball peen handles first, then grab a spokeshave if needed, Drawknife was sold a few years ago.:(

[harry strasil]

..I have found making a good hammer or axe handle to fit the eye to be one of the hardest projects. I guess it depends on the tool. I've had some real difficult and inconsistent shapes to deal with. The older axes and hammers are a pain.

LOL, I spent 55+ years in a blacksmith shop from the time I was 7, in that time I don't know how many thousands of hammer, axe (double and single bit), sledge, corn knife, and almost anything that had a replacable handle in it, putting in new handles. We had boughten handles to start with, and every manufacturer has a different size eye in their tool heads. Using a drawknife, 4 in hand rasp and a serrated sickle section, I don't think it ever took me over 15 minutes to replace any handle. FWIW

Ooops, yes it did take me more time, when the customer had tried to install one themselves by driving the iron part on with a large hammer and I had to undo the damage that they did in their efforts. After the first time they paid me for undoing the damage they caused, it never happened again except in the case of the real idiots who never learned.

[harry strasil]

One trick my Father taught me was to chamfer the end of the handle eye and tap it lightly into the eye of the tool and then work the handle eye down to slightly oversize of the impression left from the tapping. Takes a lot of the guess work out of working the handle down to a drive fit.

[Rick Markham]

One trick my Father taught me was to chamfer the end of the handle eye and tap it lightly into the eye of the tool and then work the handle eye down to slightly oversize of the impression left from the tapping. Takes a lot of the guess work out of working the handle down to a drive fit.

Yep then test fitting is easy, ya keep being gentle with it, and the shiny areas are the ones that are rubbing and binding, and thats where it needs a little more work done. Shhhhhhh... thats the secret!:D

[harry strasil]

UH oh, any striking tool with a slip fit handle will never stay tight, you need a 1/32 to 1/16 press fit to compress the wood fibers then wedge with a wooden wedge and a steel wedge at a 45 to the wood wedge. Nothing worse than an unintended hammer head missle hitting a friend or a customer.

[Rick Markham]

Well it's a good thing I haven't made any axe handles then :eek: Thanks Harry! I'd rather not learn that the hard way :D Time to go fix a couple things!

[Russell Sansom]

I second the consensus; I don't feel like a gifted handle maker, but looking around the shop I see half a dozen staring back at me. They all look perfect, they fit my hand the way I want them to ( possibly missing out on the advantages of a "proper" design ). They're without finish and some still bear the marks of their creation.
Visitors can tell they're my doing and be surprised by how much better they are than something from a factory. They bring me great pleasure every time I touch them ( if one of them doesn't, I recycle its wood and create a new one that pulls its emotional weight ). Possibly this same pleasure is waiting for you to find it?

[harry strasil]

This is the last few pictures and text from an online demo called a Blueprint for a Blacksmithing site.

Striking tool manufacturers order handles for their tools with the proper handle eye, so they can quickly install the handles using hydraulic machinery.

Blacksmiths on the other hand make the eyes in striking tools to fit the handles they are going to use.

Blacksmith Hammers are probably the most heavily used members of the hammer family. To the Smith their hammer is as respected to them as a keen edge is to Woodworkers.

But Smith Hammers are probably the most abused hammers by Non Smiths.

Installing the Handle in a Hammer Head.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v81/irnsrgn/demos/online%20demos/hamr33.jpg

fig.33- Putting in the handle, start the handle in the eye and then hold the handle in
your off hand and strike the end of the handle squarely with a hammer as shown.
As you hit the end the head will move up the handle, it will feel solid and the handle
will drive down thru your hand when the handle is fully seated. If you look close you
will see the wood curling where the handle goes into the head, the eye in this head
was a little tight and the head is shaving the excess wood that did not compress into
the eye, if you keep driving the handle into the head, the wood will split up the
handle and will fly off. this weakens the handle, with a little practice and common
sense you will soon know when to stop. COMPRESS is the key word, the handle
should be approxiametly 1/16 bigger than the eye to compress the wood into the
eye for a nice tight fit. If you make your handles slide into the head easily, you
probably have a lot of trouble with the heads becoming loose.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v81/irnsrgn/demos/online%20demos/hamr34.jpg

fig.34 - Getting rid of the thin curled wood, I use a serrated sickel section to do this
with, but a half round file will also work or a sharp knife blade. Just remember not to
cut into the wood of the handle or it will create a stress point and will probably break
at that point.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v81/irnsrgn/demos/online%20demos/hamr35.jpg

fig. 35 - Putting in a wooden wedge in the sawslot in the handle using a wedge
made of dry hickory sawn from an old handle which will be dry and should not shrink any more. The sawslot should run at least halfway thru the head.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v81/irnsrgn/demos/online%20demos/hamr36.jpg

fig. 36 - Cut the excess wood of the handle off leaving it 1/4 to 3/8 inch proud of the
head and drive in the steel wedge at a 45 degree angle to the wooden wedge, this
spreads the wood all ways, and the excess wood sticking up flares and makes an
effective rivet type head of wood , so that even if the head becomes loose it will not
come off. With this rivet type protrusion you head should stay tight even in very dry
areas.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v81/irnsrgn/demos/online%20demos/hamr37.jpg

fig. 37 -What the finished job should look like.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v81/irnsrgn/demos/online%20demos/hamr38.jpg

fig. 38 - The 3 hammers that were ordered, the ones on the outside are 2pound
right and left quarter peins , and the one in the middle is the one shown in this
blueprint a 1-1/2 pound right hand quarter pein. The one that the pictures are of
didn't suit me, so this one was made later when Mr. Murphy was on break.

[Rick Markham]

Harry seeing your pictures I actually remembered that's how you drove the head home, learned that as a child, but had forgotten over the years. The part that I didn't know that is the key to the whole thing is the metal wedge being put in at a 45 degree angle. That explains a lot, thank you for sharing. I like your hammer your using to drive the head home on the pein in the picture.

[harry strasil]

That is one of my Grandfathers Farriers Turning hammers the pein is Xed for gripping the hot metal of the front of the horseshoe when forming toe clips. I also have one that he made for himself, much the same style but a little different.

A lot of the newer hobbiest smiths are starting to alter their smithing hammers like some of us old pharts, to lessen the vibration to our arms and to help prevent carpal tunnell and what is called tendonitis and or tennis elbow which is really just a missalignment of the two forarm bones at the elbow, and can be corrected by any competant Chiropractor.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v81/irnsrgn/demos/online%20demos/hamrhndles.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v81/irnsrgn/demos/online%20demos/hamrhndles2.jpg

The hammers on the left have had the throat ( the part next to the head) thinned to add springyness to the hickory handles.

[steven c newman]

i can do. I might try making my own for the "Cobbler's Hammer". Here's a shot ( or two) of another of my little hammers: :cool:

[harry strasil]

tinners bradding or riveting hammer, those are nice