My New Brass Headed Plane Hammer

[Jim Koepke]

Yesterday a brass hammer head arrived in the mail, sent by another SMC member, THANK YOU.

So today a little time was taken to make a handle. There was a piece of apple with some bark left on:

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A little care on the bandsaw made a nice piece to turn. A piece of dowel was used to get a feel of how long the handle should be for a comfortable swing.

After a little time on the lathe:

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The drill bits were used like a sizing gauge in the eye of the head to set the calipers for checking size on the lathe. The top block was cut off and the handle was pressed in to the eye. A chisel with a 90º bevel was used to remove excess material:

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Twisting the head on the handle actually pushed some of the wood and helped to see how much more needed removal. A fine toothed file was also used for this process.


A small hole was drilled and then a slot of a wedge was cut:

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A lesson learned here is to saw the slot before finishing the sizing. Things still worked out okay.

With plenty of scrap from the milling one piece seemed just right for a wedge:

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With everything going together it was time to finish the bottom. Had to think whether this was going to be a round bottom or a pointy bottom handle. The pointy bottom won. A saw was used to trim the waste and then a gouge was used to shape the bottom:

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Follow up with a little light sanding and some furniture polish it is done for now:

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Sometimes on hammers my preference is for a more oval cross section or even flat sides. That decision can wait a while.

jtk

[Dave Seng]

Looks like a nice little hammer. With a beautiful handle! Thanks for the tip about kerfing for the head BEFORE final sizing - that's one I'll remember.

[Jim Ritter]

Well done, Jim. Nice Job.
Jim

[Mike Henderson]

Nice job on the handle, Jim. You can make your own hammer head fairly easy. I have a tutorial here (http://www.mikes-woodwork.com/BrassHammer.htm).

Mike

[Jim Koepke]

I have a tutorial here.

That is a great instructional piece Mike.

The part on having the handle oval instead of round is spot on. Having the hammer at my computer desk yesterday was one of my reasons for doing a bit more work on the handle today.

A spokeshave was used to flatten the sides:

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The hardest part of this was deciding how to hold the hammer. A square dog and one of my auxiliary vise faces took care of that:

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Flattening the sides is just the first step. Having slight hollows for the finger tips and the callouses at the base of the fingers helps to improve one's grip:

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This was done with a shallow sweep gouge.

This needs to be done carefully or there is a risk of some ugly tear out. After getting the flats hollowed a rubbing of the shop's wax & oil rag:

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Apple is a beautiful wood to work. Here is a straight on view:

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Now a hard assignment, finding a place to stow it when not in use.

jtk

[Frederick Skelly]

Sweet little hammer Jim!