Brick hammer

[lurcher]

Hi do you think I could alter an old brick hammer into a curved gutter adze for bowl carving ?

 

[NazNomad]

If you have a forge, no problems.

 

[Doug B]

With a bit of tempering, yes

 

[AndyT]

There are several YouTube videos of people turning hammers into adzes, so if your forge skills are as good as eg this guy, why not give it a go?

https://youtu.be/8vAiLzaOXIs

 

[Cheshirechappie]

Maybe - but the steel qualities that make a good brick hammer may not necessarily match those of a good edge tool. Mind you, there's only one way to find out....

 

[Lons]

Not difficult to make with a bit of tool stee ( this was 25mm x 3mm ) and a bit of branch wood. I made this a few years ago and still not finished?

 

[ED65]

Maybe - but the steel qualities that make a good brick hammer may not necessarily match those of a good edge tool.

What, an oil-quenched tool steel and an oil-quenched tool steel?

 

[woodbrains]

Hello,

Aren't hammers case hardened low/medium carbon steel. Adzes (edge tools) should be high carbon steel. I think you'd be onto a hiding to nothing TBH unless your forge skills are good enough to introduce carbon into the hammer or forge weld some high carbon steel onto it. If they were, then I suppose you wouldn't ask the question!

Mike.

 

[lurcher]

Thanks I do have a local blacksmith who will do it willingly I just couldn't remember the way round it . its the medication sorry had a big spine op 18month ago and bugger it need another now dammed for life with it bloody building trade.

 

[bugbear]

Hello,

Aren't hammers case hardened low/medium carbon steel.

I don't think hammers were traditionally case hardened - they were differentially tempered, which implies "at least some" carbon in the metal.

BugBear

 

[Cheshirechappie]

Maybe - but the steel qualities that make a good brick hammer may not necessarily match those of a good edge tool.

What, an oil-quenched tool steel and an oil-quenched tool steel?

In the 1800s, the choice of 'steel' was very limited - you could vary the carbon content from about 0.5% to about 1.5%, but that was about it. Hammers tended to be made from something around the 0.6% to 0.8%, because they wanted something with toughness as well as a hard, wear-resistant striking face. Even so, hammers had a bit of a reputation for chipping - little bits would break off and fly around occasionally, which wasn't good for any eyeballs in the vicinity.

In the later 1800s and into the 1900s, people started experimenting with alloying elements, and ended up with a wide range of steels having better properties for specific applications. In the tool steel field, the oil-hardening cutting-edge steel we're very familiar with came about because metallurgists were looking for a steel that kept it's size and shape when heat-treated - something water-hardening steels are very poor at, and a property of great use to engineering gauge makers. That's why O1 is often sold as 'gauge plate'. It's use for edge tools was a secondary advantage, not it's main one! They also discovered steels that were better at taking shock loads, and thus made more durable hammers - and made techniques like drop-forging possible. Something like an adze doesn't really have to bother too much about shock loading, wood being a fairly good shock absorber, so edge-taking and holding characteristics are more desirable.

Look up the books, and you'll find there are now several hundred different grades of 'tool steel' with characteristics adapted for different applications, from hot-forging dies, cold-forging dies, extrusion dies, plastic injection-moulding dies, metal-cutting tools, and at least one grade that makes good SDS chisels.

Thus, for a hammer made in the 20th century, especially the latter part of it, it doesn't necessarily follow that a brick hammer good at taking repeated shock loads against hard, unyielding materials will be made from a steel ideal for an edge tool. It may well take a reasonable edge if reworked, but it might not be in quite the same league as a proper one.

Still worth a try, though.

Edit to add - there's a bit more background here - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tool_steel

 

[lurker]

Not difficult to make with a bit of tool stee ( this was 25mm x 3mm ) and a bit of branch wood. I made this a few years ago and still not finished?

I like that.
=D> =D> =D>
Will be making myslf a small one very soon

 

[ED65]

Fair points all CC. Lots of unknowns for sure, but from what I've seen of modern hammer production the steel used would tend make a perfectly decent cutting-edge tool.

This is borne out somewhat by what amateur blacksmiths have been doing, turning hammers of various kinds into cutting tools and the opposite, making hammers from random bits of steel incl. railroad ties, cold chisels and suspension leaf springs.

 

[bugbear]

random bits of steel incl. railroad ties, cold chisels and suspension leaf springs.

Those aren't random - those are selected. Suspension leafs, in particular,
are "just right".

BugBear