Thread: Polishing a hammer

So i needed another ball peen hammer, my old one seems to have walked off. i looked in two differnent hardware stores nither of then had anything lighter than 6ounces, which is fine the old one was a 6 ounce vaughan... which is what the new one is as well. i selected the best ground ball i could find but there were serious grind marks on it. so i took it to an old coarse oilstone and started working the grindings smooth, swiched to a finer one, then to the d8c each time the ball was looking more ball like and the grinding blemishes were diminishing. then i used the a d8f and progressed to the d8e. right now i have just finished with 2k wet/dry paper, it looks very shiny.

Do i need to polish it more? i could buff it a bit but is that just overkill?

I just take off any heavy grind marks with emory,Since I polish the pins by hand after peening any minor transfer marks from the hammer surface are of no concern to me.

I polish mine out Jim all the way through the whole buffing routine like a razor...

If you want nice smooth pins you also need to have a polished surface too I polish the anvils and the surface of my Jeweler's block when they need it too..

However like Pixel says if you polish the pins after then it is overkill... I don't polish pins myself but that is a YMMV thing I like just doing it with the hammer

Glen i have seen pictures of you polished anvils... i just have 2 a little 55# and a 300# i doubt i will ever polish them all the way out i do keep the flats fairly smooth. and i guess i'll finish polishing the hammer.

thanks for the input everyone.
jim

I recently polished both my hammer and my anvil. It does help. I also rounded down the 90 degree edges of my anvil in the process --- seems to help reduce scale scratches.

Not being a metal guy, may I ask what procedure you go through to polish your anvil? It's obviously too heavy to take to the wheel.

Originally Posted by DBurnette

Not being a metal guy, may I ask what procedure you go through to polish your anvil? It's obviously too heavy to take to the wheel.

The anvils as used above perhaps wgt about 8 oz,max

Originally Posted by pixelfixed

The anvils as used above perhaps wgt about 8 oz,max

Apparently, I don't get out enough! Thanks.

sorry the jeweler's anvils are very small and light. not really designed for beating hot steel more for cold working softer metals... unfortunately for me mine are the bigger heavy ones not the dainty variety.

A small anvil type device is pretty much mandatory for pinning work,and useful for many things.
You can make one for a couple bucks. I used a body work Dolly (kragens, 3 bux) some minor grinding,polishing,drill some partial holes to use as a dapping block,works well.