The best general hammer

T

thegeek574

Joined
Sep 3, 2010
Messages
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Everyone,
I am working on procuring some stuff for forging, and I am stuck on hammers. What should I get? my budget is extremely limited and is pretty much- one of sam's hammers or something else that costs about the same. what would you recommend for general work?
Edit: the budget is about 100 dollars, but the less there cost, the more I get to spend on steel and other things I also have to buy.
thanks,
Steven
 
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Steven,I have a Sears Craftsmen cross pein I have been using for years.I have other hammers I have bought,but I mainly still use the Craftsmen..some folks swear by the Hofi style,but I don't like a square head...this is a subject that will bring a lot of different opinions so mine is just one of many..so let's hear some others :-)
 
IF you can get one, and the waiting list is very long, talk to Sam Salvati. Not sure how many makers' items have such a waiting list, but there is a reason there is such a list for his.
 
My favorite hammer is the one i got for about $15 at the hardware store its just s 2.5lb sledge. you can also get a regular hammer and cut the back off of it for a single face Japanese style forging hammer. I always do my best to try something inexpensive before committing big bucks to it.
 
I am seeing "get an inexpensive cross pein and then go from there. what is the best style? I know there are swedish, french, and japanese, so which is the best suited to general work?
 
thegeek574 said:
I am seeing "get an inexpensive cross pein and then go from there. what is the best style? I know there are swedish, french, and japanese, so which is the best suited to general work?
Click to expand...

that depends... are you Swedish French or Japanese?

in all honesty i will leave answering this to the professionals....
 
Cross peen IMHO is the best all around, A German or Swedish style being the most common. A comfortable working range for most everything for common bladesmithing is in the 2-3 pound range. Commercial Hammer quality is great all around, so even a 15$ will be a good hammer, where it becomes critical is in the dressing of the faces, and that is where the cheaper hammers fail. 15$ ish ones will be dead flat with a sharp radius breaking the corners of the face requiring an entire regrind of the face, 30-40$ range hammers like from blacksmiths depot will only only require a light dressing to smooth things out, and higher end like my hammers come ready to use with only a little bit of personal tweaking needed.

Also, the Nordic hammer from BSDepot is very nice, balance and use similar to Hofi but for a fraction of the price.

You can also go two ways, which might require rehandling, is a heavy head with a short handle or a lighter head with a longer handle, both can do roughly the same amount of work.
 
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Hey Steven -- I presume you are talking about hammers for bladesmithing to forge dimensional bar stock that is close to your blade size? On-the-other-hand, if you're talking about forging layered billets or pounding out integrals from 1" or thicker stock that's another story. The first could be done with lighter hammers than the second. I like the go cheap first and find what you like idea. If you can get to a hammer-in or two you could try out all kinds of hammers. I've enjoyed the cheap Swedish style version Blacksmith Depot sells (top one). It's 1.75 pounds, light, handy and snappy. Working on the faces like Sam mentioned is a good idea. I actually bought this hammer as part of a package deal with a Czech style one too, but I don't get into the "Czech" one much. One hammer style I really enjoy, but rarely see folks use much is a straight peen. I find the straight peen as, or often more, useful than the cross peen for setting shoulders and drawing out length. A light weight reasonably balanced one can be challenging to find though. I used to watch the blacksmith category on eBay regularly when I was sourcing stuff like this. Good luck! -- Phil

 
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OK, I think that I am hearing to go lighter, go cheaper, and then upgrade once I find what I like. go for the cheaper swedish hammers and be a study on how well one person can make do with one hammer. if really like it, I will get one of sam's too.
 
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