Am I out of touch ;-)

[Droogs]

I know this tool as a 'jumping drill' - they were available in a range of sizes and simple to use - hit the end, rotate a few degrees, hit again etc. The ones I used to own have long gone but were a Rawlplug product ...

Were talking about the tool used to hit the tool you are describing and how it has been translated by Aldi from german

 

[davidgrogers]

Maybe you need to go way back to before they had compressed air jack hammers in the mines, in the 17th century they used long drill bits that one person would support and rotate whilst another person would hit the end with a hammer, could this be where the term drilling hammer comes from?

You took the words out of my mouth. An elderly relative who lived in North America was fond of mentioning his Drilling Hammer, which he'd used when a geology student and later a Uni lecturer. That was before compressed air drills of course.

 

[D_W]

I don't think there's anything american about that name. Lump hammer is uncommon here, too, except for some bloggers using the term to try to be cool.

They're sold as "mini-sledge" or "engineer's hammer". Engineer means about 16 different things here, too, so that doesn't clarify much to a young boy like I was the first time I heard it.

I would've guessed German, too. they call a combination shotgun and rifle a drilling, which always confused me as a kid, too.

 

[Tony Zaffuto]

I don't think there's anything american about that name. Lump hammer is uncommon here, too, except for some bloggers using the term to try to be cool.

They're sold as "mini-sledge" or "engineer's hammer". Engineer means about 16 different things here, too, so that doesn't clarify much to a young boy like I was the first time I heard it.

I would've guessed German, too. they call a combination shotgun and rifle a drilling, which always confused me as a kid, too.

The fan-bois bloggers strike again! They also say that the Harbor Freight engineer's hammer will not work the same as the lump hammer, even if ground/sanded to the same shape, with a hand-hewn handle.

 

[Jacob]

Interesting because the first miners in the UK were German and brought over by Elizabeth the 1st to mine copper, lead and silver in Cumbria.

Romans were at it a long time ago and not the first.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Histo... Bruce,for drainage and improved ventilation.Coal, lead and silver around here also some silver and traces of gold- lead ingots have been found with Roman inscriptions. This one just over the hill from me BBC - A History of the World - Object : Roman Pig of Lead.
We also have various intersecting Roman roads nearby which were probably here for the mining. Also fluorspar used for smelting.
Before that flint mines Grime's Graves - Prehistoric Flint Mine presumably with flint lump hammers.

 

[D_W]

The fan-bois bloggers strike again! They also say that the Harbor Freight engineer's hammer will not work the same as the lump hammer, even if ground/sanded to the same shape, with a hand-hewn handle.

I don't know what the virtues of the lump hammer are- the listing at LV says that it's 28-32 hardness and made of 4140 steel.

A guy with a mill could make a piles of them for about $10 with a propane burner and a reasonably large can of used motor oil.

I'll resist the urge to do that even once since the hammer at harbor freight with a handle is $9.

 

[D_W]

I looked closer at the "boutique lump hammer" picture. It looks like square stock with bevels ground on it. The face is a little rounded and the ad says that the handle is shorter than normal. It looks like it's about the same length as the cheap ones from HF. I don't get it.

Now I'm going to be forced to belt grind the marks off of the HF hammer and see if it doesn't dress up well.

I don't have a great deal of objection to boutique tools, I just wish they'd say "hey, this is kind of the same thing as the $20 tool, but it looks a little different, and you probably would be afraid to use it for the odd metal garden stake that may trigger you to polish the face of your $20 hammer. So, you will probably still want to use it at your bench.....and just in case you get a little shop grit on whatever you're building, and that could also scratch the lump hammer.

 

[clogs]

I have a lump hammer head of old.....prob my dads....
put on a 21/2 lbs hammer shaft (norm length)....
it's great for stubbon stuff where a full on 14pounder is to big and the 1/2 size handle is to long....
Why is a sledge hammer called so....??

tried to find the twisted lump hammer head but no luck so far...

 

[D_W]

Why is a sledge hammer called so....??

Since the internet will tell you a little but not much, the word is assigned to a heavy sleigh or sled here.

No year is given for first use of that, as the "hammer" definition appears only a fraction of the number of times that the sleigh definition does.

I didn't see any attribution to peter gabriel.

 

[stuart little]

I don't think there's anything american about that name. Lump hammer is uncommon here, too, except for some bloggers using the term to try to be cool.

They're sold as "mini-sledge" or "engineer's hammer". Engineer means about 16 different things here, too, so that doesn't clarify much to a young boy like I was the first time I heard it.

I would've guessed German, too. they call a combination shotgun and rifle a drilling, which always confused me as a kid, too.

Yup, engine driver immediatly comes to mind! Useful for 'wheel tapping'!

 

[stuart little]

Since the internet will tell you a little but not much, the word is assigned to a heavy sleigh or sled here.

No year is given for first use of that, as the "hammer" definition appears only a fraction of the number of times that the sleigh definition does.

I didn't see any attribution to peter gabriel.

Nor Percy!

 

[Keith 66]

Rawlplug, those drills often came with an orange & blue tin full of proper blue asbestos. Mix it with a bit of water or spit pop it in the hole & ram in with the provided rammer & spike.
I used to mix the stuff for my dad.
I found an unopened refill pack of the stuff a few years back clearing a shed.

 

[Fergie 307]

Romans were at it a long time ago and not the first.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Histo... Bruce,for drainage and improved ventilation.Coal, lead and silver around here also some silver and traces of gold- lead ingots have been found with Roman inscriptions. This one just over the hill from me BBC - A History of the World - Object : Roman Pig of Lead.
We also have various intersecting Roman roads nearby which were probably here for the mining. Also fluorspar used for smelting.
Before that flint mines Grime's Graves - Prehistoric Flint Mine presumably with flint lump hammers.

I think the found quite a number of antler picks at Grimes Graves, and the size of many of the galleries suggest children must have been doing at least some of the work. Tough folk back then !

 

[Fergie 307]

I don't think there's anything american about that name. Lump hammer is uncommon here, too, except for some bloggers using the term to try to be cool.

They're sold as "mini-sledge" or "engineer's hammer". Engineer means about 16 different things here, too, so that doesn't clarify much to a young boy like I was the first time I heard it.

I would've guessed German, too. they call a combination shotgun and rifle a drilling, which always confused me as a kid, too.

Have to say I have always known them called lump or club hammers, the type with a more bulbous shaped head.

 

[johna.clements]

Where I have worked in the UK we have called them lump or club hammers. Not sure the ratio but maybe more club hammer. Never heard of drilling hammer.

Have drilled a few holes over the years to drop a nail in to set a theodolite up over when we could not find a some soil to knock a peg into or a cracked bit of concrete to drive into.

 

[Phil Pascoe]

I think I was an adult before I heard one called any other than a lump hammer. Possibly it's a regional thing?

 

[Phil Pascoe]

I remember at twelve or thirteen years old using the Rawlplug star drills. Using them in granite was a job no one wanted.

 

[Phil Pascoe]

I've a few quite old ones. I've never seen one with anything like a badly marked face so I'd think they are harder than 28-32 hardness. I know people who've polished a face to use as an anvil for small silver work.

 

[whatknot]

Sorry I hadn't seen several of these replies, I wasn't getting notifications for some reason
(I know you have to go to the site from each notification to receive more, I must have missed one)

Had I thought about it initially I should have realised the German connection, given it was being sold at Aldi ;-)

By the corner of my bench are three hammers, a 4lb lump hammer, a 2lb ball peen hammer and a scaling hammer (despite having the latter for years I did not know what its name was so looked it up) I have oodles of other hammers of course but these three get used a lot

The lump hammer has served as a mini anvil on many occasions

 

[D_W]

Have to say I have always known them called lump or club hammers, the type with a more bulbous shaped head.

I'm guessing one of the M.O.s here is to make something like a cleaner looking "mini sledge" or low weight drilling hammer like the crucible version and then use the English term in the US to make it seem like it might be something special.

Whereas you guys will respond with "why would someone pay 100 quid for a lump hammer?" In the US, the newbies to the hobby will think "it looks like an engineer's hammer, but it must be different in an important way because it's 5 times as expensive and it's called a lump hammer".

I'm partial to tony's comment - they all dent wood just about as well as each other.