"Curt Welch" wrote in message
...
"Ed Huntress" wrote:
"rigger" wrote in message
...

But the "handle pocket" is not straight sided and don't forget the
heat treating; VERY important for this type of hammer.

I'd think that the heat treating was actually not very important at all
for
a 4oz hammer. A hammer of that size is just going to be used for light
taping I would think. What am I missing?

It depends on what you're tapping. If you're tapping hardened pins into
their holes, you need a properly hardened face or it will get dented. If
you're heading copper rivets, it doesn't matter much. If you're planishing
decorative metal work over a polished stake, you need a polished face -- and
it won't stay polished very long if it isn't properly hardened.

But the worst thing is to harden them the way the Chinese do, and the
Japanese used to do, which is to uniformly harden the whole face. When you
do that, you'll eventually get chipped edges on the hammer face.


The socket is tapered in both directions, with the longer taper on top.
And the face is hardened and tempered overall to a medium-high hardness.
Then the outer edge of the face is tempered to dark blue, using an "iron"
that has a cone-shaped socket, which is heated to red heat, into which
the hammer face is pushed for a few seconds to transfer heat to just the
peripheral edge.

It's a little tricky if you're trying to make a high-quality hammer,
particularly if you need a polished face. I have three raising hammers
that were custom-made that way by an expert, in the 1930s.

Very cool.

--
Curt Welch
http://CurtWelch.Com/

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