thats the end.....!!!!!!

[clogs]

well my stock of decent wooden hammer shafts has gone that is.....
I bought at least 20 shafts before I moved out of the UK 23-4 years ago as I knew unless I went back to the UK I could not buy anymore....
today I used my last one....2lbs head....I do a lot of metal work and must have at least 25 hammers.....
Now these are ball pein hammers not the UK style claw hammer...have busted a few of them......I now use an Estwing for that job....much loved and well used.....
reasoning in my head, if u can use a nail u can also use a screw, so no nails in my workshop.....wiring clips is an exception.....esp after getting rid of my percussive Hilti.....
No more wooden shafts stocked as far as I know.....have seen a few G/F handles but who's gonna fit them.....
even the wedges are non exsistant here....I make my own.....in the UK....?
A small 1lb'er got a hand made shaft about a year ago.....some very dry Carob wood....nicked it outta the firewood pile.....
gotta say I'm very pleased with it.....didn't expect much at the time but pleasantly suprised.....
at least I'll store my tree trimmings now for the next handle.....
Before u say should have taken the bark off.....u need to know it's not like what ur used to bark wise.....
this is more like a thin skin....and stuck like glue......did try on another piece but gave up....
it's bark free in the head tho....
this hammer has been worked hard because it has a nice feel....it's my go-to tool when a small one is needed......
do u have a favorite....?
the knob on the end fits my hand real well...YES I hold the end of the shaft....how many don't...?????
When trained as an apprentice we got a belt over the knuckles if u held a hammer wrong....hahaha....the good ol days.....eh....
Here and most of Europe u can only buy hammers with those glassfibre handles.....UK....???? all imports....?
plus they are some kinda weired cross pein head...."Warrington hammer" cant quite rememeber, a grey moment.....lol....
I'm not having any of that c2rp in my workshop.....there's just something about a wooden shaft.....
that's unless it a leather Estwing.....their rubbery plastic handle are rubbish.....I have tried them....
try em with sweaty hands (especialy the club hammer) I never use gloves, except when welding....
Speaking of handles my much loved UK style pick axe handle has finally cracked, badly...Hickory shaft.....I've owned it from new ....(40 years)....
I will have to buy a new pick as the handle is not available here, which means a glass/f shaft....lucky I dont use/look at it every day.....

I have found that over the years wooden handles need to be stored in the cool and never leave em out in the rain or sun......
yes, on occ they need a soak to swell the head/shaft fit.....
When I fit my new handles I take great care, the head apature gets polished n smoothed out...u only needto do it once, the rough finish messes up the long term fit of the handle....
Besides my heads are pushed in/on with a 25 hydraulic press, not on full load silly....if done right it's suprising how much load they will need to get a tight fit.....
mine gets a light oil to the shaped handle to help it to go in the head.....a glued wooden wedge then a steel one at 45degrees.....and over the years I've had no probs......
I do use on occasion a TRUE 14 lbs sledge, also wooden handled and around 30 years old.....but at my age (72) I can only swing on full belt around 10 times before the accuracy goes.....or I'm knackard.....hahaha...
that why I built the press.......
so u will see by all this jabber I rather treasure my hammers....over the years they have been a big part of my life.....mad I know....
when I was indentured, the forman said u get 1 shilling an hour to hit something and the other 9 shillings for knowing where to hit it....
oh,
and if I won the lottery one of the only things I'd like to buy would bethis'un but a steel headed type.....

tea's gone/drunk so going back to work.....happy hammering to u all....

whats ur storey....?

 

[Peri]

When trained as an apprentice we got a belt over the knuckles if u held a hammer wrong....hahaha....the good ol days.....eh....

My colleague at work (a lecturer) tells the students a story about when he was an apprentice.

He was holding his hammer (they brought their own tools) up near the head. The instructor told him that was wrong, demonstrated the correct way, and told him not to do it again.

Next lesson he again was holding the hammer up by the head. The instructor walked over, put his hand over my friends hand, and gripping tightly, led him to the bandsaw, where he sawed off the part of the handle that was protruding. "If you're not going to use it, you don't need it".

 

[IWW]

Yes, a 'clip over the ear' was a common chastisement for using tools "incorrectly". Of course "correct" was too often the idea of the clipper & neither universal nor backed by incontestable logic. Along with putting planes down right way up on the bench, "choking up" on a hammer was bound to invoke the ire of my elders.

For sure, if you are whaling into something & want maximum bang for buck, you hold the hammer as far from the business end as you can, but there are plenty of situations where it makes more sense to hold it closer to the head - delicate peening, where accuracy is more important than power is one good example. Perhaps a life in research has made me question everything, but over time I found so many of the "musts" & "mustn'ts" have little or no foundation in fact, there are many different ways to get the skin off the moggy. Now my betters have long since departed, I take great delight in ignoring some of those "rules" that were hammered (pun intended) into me as a lad.

Clogs, surely you can find some suitable wood like hornbeam or olive for hammer handles? Hickory is considered the premium wood, I know, but there are lots that will do a good job. I'm spoilt for choice where I live, with several woods that run a close second to hickory. Making & fitting a hammer handle takes very little time (if you exclude the time spent looking for that perfect piece of wood I knew I had carefully put away! ). Making a few handles & fitting them is a good job for a dreary weekend afternoon when I'm semi-brain-dead & not wanting to do anything that demands real concentration:



The old Cheney "nailer" on the right got hickory (the last bit I'm ever likely to have), the others are "Chinese elm" (Celtis sinensis), nowhere near as tough as hickory, but nevertheless remarkably tough & resilient for its weight...

Cheers,

 

[TRITON]

Along with putting planes down right way up on the bench,

Placing a plane,sole down on a wooden surface is going to cause ZERO damage to the blade.
It it did, it would be useless for planing wooden surfaces

 

[clogs]

IWW,
I like the longer shaft on the club hammer but I've one with a good bit longer shaft.....
for me it's less cumbersome than a 1/2 size sledge.....
u wont find an exotic like Hornbeam here.....It's also quite rare to see cut Pine of any description other than imports....it's illegal to cut any forest on this island.....the last piece of pine I bought (used as a chopping/spliting block for firewood was blown down across a road....
Also it's not unusual to buy a house/plot with tree's on that are totally protected....
It's only an Olive that can be cut/removed to build a house......
I have only seen 1 living Oak since I've been here.....Wife and I remarked on it.....when we used to live in France we had a small Oak n Sweet Chestnut wood.....
I'll stick with Carob wood now.....plenty of them on my plot.....
Olive trees are not so often trimmed for the likes of h/shafts.....unless its a 20-40 year trim...(butchering) hahaha....then everything goes to the wood stove.....
Generally Olive trees are trimmed from the early days to have a good trunk (often quite short) with 4-5 finger like main branches at the top.....the trimmings are then just a twitch...that can kinda trim can / will last for a 100 years.....
I have an Olive thats gotta be 500 years or more....trimmed just the same, 5 fingers.....

Thanks for the imput.....if only we had the choices of wood spieces u do or south America....but thats life.....
I do miss Holley and Sycamore etc.....even Cherry.....n the list goes on.....hahaha....

 

[sawtooth-9]

Have always had Estwing.
If you want a real hammer - these are the ones that last
The balance is great.
I have a ball pane Estwing - which I bought too many years ago. Sadly the leathers at the head end have broken off. It's just so useful, so I just keep on using it
I have never tried the Estwing with the " rubber " handle - are they as good ?

 

[IWW]

Placing a plane,sole down on a wooden surface is going to cause ZERO damage to the blade.
It it did, it would be useless for planing wooden surfaces

Yep Triton, that's exactly what my 13-yr-old logic deduced...

I've seen various attempts at rationalising that rule, but none that stand up to more than superficial analysis. The best reason is if there's likely to be some metal object that contacts the blade lying in the wrong spot. The solution is to keep the work area a bit tidier!

Clogs, I didn't realise you lived in such a treeless environment, so my rabbiting on like that is sorta rubbing salt into the wound - apologies! Olive wood is a rare find where I live (it's a declared weed in Sth. Australia), but I've had a few bits come my way. Lovely stuff, once you succeed in getting it dry & working around the drying splits. What I've had was from 'baby' trees (<60 yrs old) so only big enough for small things, but it does make very attractive (& tough) handles.

The oily wood polishes more with use & feels great in the hand....
Cheers,
Ian

 

[TRITON]

I have a ball pein Estwing - which I bought too many years ago. Sadly the leathers at the head end have broken off. It's just so useful, so I just keep on using it

Im sure ive seen a yt vid on replacing the leathers on the grip of old Estwings. Shaped with a belt sander if i remember, but i cant remember how they capped off the end.
I'll see if i can find it(or another)
Not the same one but similar, and it shows a similar method.

 

[clogs]

Sawtooth....
the cap end is the easy part to repair a leather Estwing...making the leather punch would take forever.....
knowing Eswing they will prob have a service to provide that very job.....or sell u the leather parts
those rubber handles are rubbish.....I had a lot of them (but they got nicked) mostley from junk stores in the US....I did buy a new Framers hammer with a r/handle.....brilliant tool but shame about the rubber.....not sure if they make that model with the leather.....
Mine's (leather) seems to be drying out a bit some may try someOlive oil on it....bit scared tho....the locals use it on anything leather.....they even baptise babies with it....!!!!!!
hahaha.....
IWW,
no worries mate.....
Olive wood is just stunning stuff......but the locals here just burn it to heat the home.....
U'd cry along with me at the waste.....big trees are hard to find, thats anything over 12-16" diameter.....evenharder to find a trunk longer than a meter.....
I'm trying to develop an arrangement with our local wood yard not to cut and split the bigger stuff so that I can buy it.....
There's lots of Olive wood for sale in Europe right now as in Spain and Italy there is a tree blight wrecking the olive groves.....hopefully it wont hit here.....
I like the plane handles......
Not sure in ur part of the world but a lot of wooden products here are now (imported) made from Bamboo....bread boards spoons etc...it does look good.....

 

[baldkev]

I have a couple of estwings and a bahco for site use. I bought a stanley 'sure strike' and I hate it.
Ive got a couple of old wooden gandled hammers ( claw and pein ) in the workshop.
My 4lb club hammer has a fibreglass shaft and the rubber grip is knackered. Id like to replace it with the estwing
The trouble is, over the years, ive had 2 estwings stolen and you can bet your a$$ someonevwill pinch it