Thread: chamfering my hammer?

Last weekend I flattened an old triangular file. When it was reasonably flat, I wanted to 'widen' it by hitting the blade with the narrow part of my hammer. The narrow part was running in parallel with the blade. If I am not mistaken, this is a standard way of thinning a blade which you want to make a bit wider.

It worked, but because my strokes were not perfect, I beat a couple of fairly deep divots in the blade surface.
This happened when my hammer fell not straight on, but left side or right side a bit earlier (my hammer twisted a bit).

I've thought about it, and it seems it is very hard to prevent this, with my hammer as is, simply because the narrow striking surface is perfeclt straight.
I am thinking of crowning it a bit. Not only from top to bottom, but also from left to right. That way, the striking surface will always make a good contact without sharp lines, as long as the hammer falls reasonably straight.

Does that seem like a good idea?

I should add that my hammer is a 3 pound carpenters hammer, with 1 square surface, and 1 narrow surface.
It is not a blacksmiths hammer per se.

Smiths have modified their tools to fit the job. I will risk feeding your tool acquisition disorder by suggesting you find a straight pein hammer. Peins come in all shapes for specific jobs moving metal. A ball pein makes a round deformation where a straight pein makes a linear one. Each type moves metal in a desired direction. If you modify your hammer make sure the corners are all smoothly radius-ed then you won't have sharp cuts in your steel that are harder to smooth out.

This link: Cross, Diagonal & Straight Pein Hammers has a lot of good examples.

Let me also suggest: Blacksmith's Journal - blacksmithing help and publications

This tool is easy to build of flat parts with very little difficulty. The best part is that you can change the forging surfaces to produce the desired effect and you have one hand to hold the hot work and one to hold the hammer.

Bruno,
I truly believe that you were once a blacksmith during the Middle Ages.

Originally Posted by Mike Blue

Smiths have modified their tools to fit the job. I will risk feeding your tool acquisition disorder by suggesting you find a straight pein hammer. Peins come in all shapes for specific jobs moving metal. A ball pein makes a round deformation where a straight pein makes a linear one. Each type moves metal in a desired direction. If you modify your hammer make sure the corners are all smoothly radius-ed then you won't have sharp cuts in your steel that are harder to smooth out.

This link: Cross, Diagonal & Straight Pein Hammers has a lot of good examples.

Looking at the pictures, it is obvious that the pein of my hammer is not fit for smithing. The pein on mine is straight, sharply delineated, and with rectangular side corners. The peins on the hammers in the link are shaped like rounded pebbles instead. I'll have to do some g

Originally Posted by Hirlau

Bruno,
I truly believe that you were once a blacksmith during the Middle Ages.

Funny you should say this. For as long as I can remember since I was a child, I knew 2 things with dead certainty:1) I am a father 2) I am a blacksmith. I knew these things with the same level of certainty as the color of the sky.