Rawhide/copper dead blow hammer

[Philip Davies]

I was given a couple of rawhide hammer inserts. It seems that most people replace their hammers when the hide insert is worn out, because googling how to do it, wasn’t much help. Perhaps somebody on HMT knows?

How well this will stand up in practice is moot. The weld will likely fail, or the inserts jump out. I flared one end of a tube slightly at red heat over a homemade mandrel, then welded a socket at what I thought was a right angle. Not having a copper insert and not wanting to buy one, I flattened some copper tube and began scrolling it. This was far more difficult than anticipated, trying to keep the spiral tight, it needed a lot of hammering. Once in its socket, I fed ball bearings in at the other end and poured molten lead to within 5/8”. The inserts are epoxied in place.

The hammer weighs 6 and 1/2 lbs. Its function is to deliver a single heavy blow to adjust forged steel, so after each strike, a check is made to see if further blows are needed.

The socket was pressed to an oval in my vice and a recycled hickory handle fitted to the socket, fox wedged.

All that work just to make use of somebody’s unwanted hide insert! Still, although makeshift, it’s nice to have a hammer that’s a bit out of the ordinary. I wonder what some of my smith friends will think.

[DIYer]

Thanks Philip Davies! We've added your Dead Blow Hammer to our Hammers category,
as well as to your builder page: Philip Davies's Homemade Tools. Your receipt:

Dead Blow Hammer by Philip Davies

tags: hammer