On Sat, 23 Apr 2005 17:43:52 +0100, doozer
wrote:

I remember being told never to hammer 2 hammers together, so I guess
this is abuse ?

Apparently because they are toughened steel they can in theory shatter
when banged together - at least that's what my old CDT teach told me.

Old hammers were wrought iron, with hard steel faces welded to them. if
you hit one of these against something hard, then there's a very real
risk of the weld failing and the face coming off in one piece. This is
a waste of a good hammer, but it's not particularly hazardous.

Incidentally, the difference between a face and a peen on a hammer is
that either can be of any shape, but a "face" is one of these hardened
add-ons.

Modern hammers (for a very long time) have been made of cast steel
(which is often forged, because "cast" doesn't quite what you think
either). These don't need a hardenable face welding to them, and their
hardened faces are often deeper. If you hit one of these against
something hard, then it's likely to chip the edge and you have a small
fragment pinging across the workshop. This really is an eye hazard.


--
Cats have nine lives, which is why they rarely post to Usenet.