hammer shaft

[clogs]

Spent a pleasant hour making an fitting a hammer shaft this afternoon when rain stopped play......
no idea on species but hard and straight grained, it came from the wood pile......

finding it v/dif to buy proper shafts now.....
not a prob with club hammer shafts but no good for a 2lb ball pein jobby.....

anyone else suffering the, buy a new hammer when the shaft breaks....what a waste......
mine break due to age not overstrike.......

my wood working hammer is a leather handled Estwing that must be 30 plus years old......so sweet to use....smooth and polished with use......

plus, getting diff to use a 14lbs sledge now due to my age....can still hit the spot but only a dozen times before I'm too knackard......hahaha...

when apprentised, the guy who trained me said you get 10sh per hour, 1sh per hour to use the hammer but 9 bob to know where to hit it......
he was a qualified blacksmith......still think of him all these years past.....

what about YOU.....?

 

[scooby]

my wood working hammer is a leather handled Estwing that must be 30 plus years old......so sweet to use....smooth and polished with use......

When I was an apprentice in the 90's, I had a 20 oz blue handled Estwing claw hammer that my dad bought in the 80's. Best hammer ever, until I dropped it down a cavity whilst doing a roof. I ended up inheriting another Estwing from my dad, a 24 oz claw hammer (again blue handle and bought in the 80's).

Pretty sure its the heaviest they make before you go into framing hammers. The handle material has gone rock solid, it weighs a ton and I hate it. Too stingy to buy a different one though

 

[Inspector]

I have a blue handled 20 oz Estwing framing hammer I bought when I was 18 for a job I got as a framing helper. For the longest time my right forearm was bigger than the left.

My father was of a generation that would make handles for everything that needed them. I have a very small Ball Peen hammer he handled for me and a 2 1/2 lb axe he must have made handles for at least 4 times. When he wanted a new shovel or rake handle he would walk the bush until he found a small tree the right size and harvest it. Once the bark was peeled he would let it dry and eventually put it on the shovel. He wouldn't bother smoothing off the knot bumps and would only soften the edges of any splits. He was perfectly happy using them like that.

Pete

 

[TheUnicorn]

always hate rehandling, but I would do it more often if the cost of a handle wasn't 90% of the cost of a new tool. Supply and demand I suppose.

Kicking myself, my neighbour took down a big branch of ash last summer, all got burnt, wish I'd had the common sense to put some aside for the next broken handle (or ten).

 

[Ozi]

I really hate the fiber glass handles they put on sledge hammers nowadays, I'm not a big bloke but I break them and not by catching the shaft, never broken a decent wooden handle in my life on hammer or axe. Anybody else had the same issue. The shop I first bought from said they have never had anyone complain but replaced two in an afternoon as you could see the shaft was unmarked then sold me a hickory handle that's been fine since.

 

[Trainee neophyte]

Just put a new oval handle on my lump hammer - complete dog's breakfast of a job, but I really needed my lump hammer. I tried and failed to shape it with my new spokeshave, so will have to redo it. Currently it isn't symmetrical, which isn't ideal. Mistakes were made; lessons were learned etc.

 

[kwigly]

I made this handle for my bench axe. Nice tight fit into the head but the handle is a bit of a botch job really, (although I like to say its "a custom job" with "character features")

 

[clogs]

one of my fav go to hammers for the bigger job is club hammer top on a long shaft.....
loads of extra grunt......hahaha.....

 

[recipio]

I had a Stanley cabinet makers hammer which broke in a spiral down the mid shaft area. It was only about 15 mm diameter anyway but I sure as hell was not going to bin it. A simple PVA glue up worked wonders. When driving nails I still wonder how the glue is stronger than the wood .

 

[joshvegas]

I did this the other day. Tiny wee thing and now the head doesn't wobble its quite useful.