thetyreman
Established Member
I will need a small brass hammer for adjusting my first wooden handplanes so decided to make one before making the handplane.
I used 1/2" round brass and made a simple jig in a piece of 2 x 2 so that I could drill a hole through the brass, the hole is 8mm.
You simply drill the hole in the centre of the centre line being careful to keep it dead square, a drill press would be a lot easier here..
then I used some old oak stock I've had around for over a year so I knew it should be nice and dry, it's american white oak.
To shape it I used mostly a coping saw to remove most of the waste, then the spokeshave, and it's wedged in with another piece of oak.
I didn't get the hole to line up perfectly centrally in the brass but it doesn't seem to make much difference, it's about 1 mm out from dead centre.
I made this with the specific purpose of adjusting plane blades, it was an enjoyable project that anybody could do with just a few hand tools,
I got the idea from 'making and mastering wood planes' by David Finck, there is a similar hammer in that book but it's a bit bigger made with 5/8" brass rod instead and around 12 inches for the handle.
my version measures exactly 6 1/2" long and the handle was made from 3/4" 20mm thick stock.
feels really good in the hand and I'm surprised at how solid if feels.
For finish I used a pad for some french polishing with de-waxed shellac. (hammer)
any thoughts?
I used 1/2" round brass and made a simple jig in a piece of 2 x 2 so that I could drill a hole through the brass, the hole is 8mm.
You simply drill the hole in the centre of the centre line being careful to keep it dead square, a drill press would be a lot easier here..
then I used some old oak stock I've had around for over a year so I knew it should be nice and dry, it's american white oak.
To shape it I used mostly a coping saw to remove most of the waste, then the spokeshave, and it's wedged in with another piece of oak.
I didn't get the hole to line up perfectly centrally in the brass but it doesn't seem to make much difference, it's about 1 mm out from dead centre.
I made this with the specific purpose of adjusting plane blades, it was an enjoyable project that anybody could do with just a few hand tools,
I got the idea from 'making and mastering wood planes' by David Finck, there is a similar hammer in that book but it's a bit bigger made with 5/8" brass rod instead and around 12 inches for the handle.
my version measures exactly 6 1/2" long and the handle was made from 3/4" 20mm thick stock.
feels really good in the hand and I'm surprised at how solid if feels.
For finish I used a pad for some french polishing with de-waxed shellac. (hammer)
any thoughts?
