Your favorite hammer

JTknives

JTknives

Blade Heat Treating www.jarodtodd.com
Joined
Jun 11, 2006
Messages
8,630
So I have been paying attention a lot more to my hammers and the one I prefer instinctually. And as crazy as it sounds its a good size ball peen that’s just under 3lbs with the handle. When I bought it the face was damaged with a chip on the edge. I rounded the face over and polished it. It has a rather skinny handle as most ball peens have. But for the life of me I can’t put my finger on why I always go for that hammer. I really love it and I don’t know why. I never use the peen side but very rarely. But the rounding side is used for 90% of my bladesmithing. As funny as it sounds I would have no problem at all doing 100% of my blade forging with this hammer.

Today we started filming a youtube project and while editing down the forging session I realized how much I use it. I was even trying to give some time to the other hammers while forging but kept coming back. First off the the weight is just about perfect. I could go a tad heavier I think at around a flat 3lbs head weight. I have a 4lb cross peen from Home Depot and I hate it. Just use it to drive rebar to make grow boxes for my wife. I don’t think it’s the weight necessarily but just bad ergonomics. Plus the handle is to big. This modified ball peen will flat out move material. It’s fun to watch the videos and see each strike heat the steel up brighter then the surrounding steel.

So I guess this long drawn out post is getting around to the question of what is your favorite hammer and why?

Also if anyone knows of a rounding hammer in the 3lb range that has a round “rounding” face and a square flat face I would love to know where to get it. As well as why I might naturally prefer this hammer over my others. I will snag a picture of my hammer(s) tomarow to show you what I’m talking about. Thanks
 
#1 - My 1.5kg Hofi. It is compact and short hands. Easy to place a controlled blow with.
#2 - My Salveti. It is a dog's head style and excellent for bevel shaping.
 
I’m trying to (re)find my favorite hammer. I don’t actually know what it was. I went to a two day bladesmithing course, and the instructor knowing I had already been banging around trying to self teach for a while gave me a “different” hammer to try. The handle was as best I can describe “flatter” than I was used to. I was highly skeptical because I had previously tended towards the roundest “comfiest” handle I could grab. This thing seemed anything but and was really uncomfortable I thought. He had me tweak my grip though to what seemed like almost sideways in my head and all of a sudden it just clicked. It became incredibly comfortable, I had more control, and my arm didn’t get as tired it seemed. I’ve been rather disappointed with my own hammers since. I’ve tried holding them the same way, but with the rounded handles it doesn’t feel right and they are harder to control (they spin on me if I don’t use a tighter grip, but the tighter grip makes my arm get tired sooner I feel like).

I’ve been trying to figure out what this hammer was so I can buy one. Nothing in a hardware store matches up of course. The head was as best I can describe a fat cross peen. Again I was skeptical because the height of the head looked off in ratio to the length compared to every other cross peen I ever held, but I think the stubby chubby ness of it may have made it more balanced. If anyone knows what type this is and the best place to get one I’d be very grateful.
 
I learned on 2.2lb and 3.3lb Frenchies. Over the last decade, they have been my most used hammers.

I like making/modifying hammers and have accumulated over 40 of them.

After a lot of researching, I felt that a rounding hammer would probably be most useful to me so I made a few in different weights. However, I always went back to the French pattern. To give it a fair shake, I put away all but one of my rounding hammers.... a 2.5lb'er. For 4 months, that was the only hammer I used. When I brought out the others, I found myself reaching for it the most.

I have a feeling that the best hammer for you is the one you use the most, simply because you use it the most. I'm tempted to take away everything but my ball peen to see if the same thing happens.

2v2ur1d4NxAhgEC.jpg
 
Same here. I still go back to the 1 and 1.5 kg French pattern Peddinghaus hammers. Although, I am liking my half ass homemade dogs head hammer that I made from a flatter. Only problem is that the "face" is kinda soft. I need a real one.
Rick Marchand said:
I learned on 2.2lb and 3.3lb Frenchies. Over the last decade, they have been my most used hammers.

I like making/modifying hammers and have accumulated over 40 of them.

After a lot of researching, I felt that a rounding hammer would probably be most useful to me so I made a few in different weights. However, I always went back to the French pattern. To give it a fair shake, I put away all but one of my rounding hammers.... a 2.5lb'er. For 4 months, that was the only hammer I used. When I brought out the others, I found myself reaching for it the most.

I have a feeling that the best hammer for you is the one you use the most, simply because you use it the most. I'm tempted to take away everything but my ball peen to see if the same thing happens.

2v2ur1d4NxAhgEC.jpg
Click to expand...
 
Rick Marchand said:
I have a feeling that the best hammer for you is the one you use the most, simply because you use it the most. I'm tempted to take away everything but my ball peen to see if the same thing happens.
Click to expand...

Probably a lot of truth to that.

I don't have a favorite. I have a 2.5 lb cross peen rounder, a dogs head for finishing, an opposite planishing hammer and a 4lb sledge with a round face and a flat face. They all do a job, I use them for those jobs. The only one I dislike is the planisher because it just feels weird but it does a really great job at what I use it for, drawing out bevels/blade height.
 
My favourite is 1kg Swedish crosspeen. Only because its most used. I suppose much is to do with grown up using that or German crosspeen hammers, so in my mind thats what a hammer is supposed to be. That said, another favourite is unknown rounding hammer. Its well suited for alot unless a crosspeen is needed.
 
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Don Hanson III said:
View attachment 919938
Click to expand...
LOL, cheater.

I have a ship riveter's hammer, think a weight forward rounded face on one side, and a big flat-ish peen on the other. I also have a regular production 2.5 rounding hammer, but I'm not convinced on that one.

Here's the riveter's hammer, before I cleaned it up and re-handled. I kept the one on the right.
92110be4d62d6dfbc60779e2bf5f48d1.jpg
 
lanternnate said:
I’m trying to (re)find my favorite hammer. I don’t actually know what it was. I went to a two day bladesmithing course, and the instructor knowing I had already been banging around trying to self teach for a while gave me a “different” hammer to try. The handle was as best I can describe “flatter” than I was used to. I was highly skeptical because I had previously tended towards the roundest “comfiest” handle I could grab. This thing seemed anything but and was really uncomfortable I thought. He had me tweak my grip though to what seemed like almost sideways in my head and all of a sudden it just clicked. It became incredibly comfortable, I had more control, and my arm didn’t get as tired it seemed. I’ve been rather disappointed with my own hammers since. I’ve tried holding them the same way, but with the rounded handles it doesn’t feel right and they are harder to control (they spin on me if I don’t use a tighter grip, but the tighter grip makes my arm get tired sooner I feel like).

I’ve been trying to figure out what this hammer was so I can buy one. Nothing in a hardware store matches up of course. The head was as best I can describe a fat cross peen. Again I was skeptical because the height of the head looked off in ratio to the length compared to every other cross peen I ever held, but I think the stubby chubby ness of it may have made it more balanced. If anyone knows what type this is and the best place to get one I’d be very grateful.
Click to expand...

Sounds like a Hofi or Hofi clone.
bsphoto2552.jpg
 
jdm61 said:
Same here. I still go back to the 1 and 1.5 kg French pattern Peddinghaus hammers. Although, I am liking my half ass homemade dogs head hammer that I made from a flatter. Only problem is that the "face" is kinda soft. I need a real one.
Click to expand...

I've got a Brent Bailey dog head that I was given as a gift. It's fantastic. Much nicer than the pick-axe home made job I had.
 
I have a bunch of hammers but much of the time I really like my 24 oz Vaughn ball pein hammer.
 
Far and away my favorite is my 2.25lb Vaughan L36 Lineman/farrier hammer. I use a few other types in the shop, but if I'm grabbing a hammer to hit some hot metal I'll reach for the L36 probably 90% of the time. It just feels good to me.
 
I like my 3lb. estwing engineers hammer, but I'm a noob so I haven't gotten as far as buying a real hammer. I just finally got a real anvil, even if it is a 70 lb farriers anvil...
 
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