7 replies to this topic

[warrent]

I stopped by my local jewelry and metal smith supply house (Armstrong Tool) on Saturday. They had a new line of hammers. Price was really cheap $19.70, for a piece of steel on the end of a stick. Heck I figured why not, you cannot go wrong. It is made by Euro Tools with the name of TruStrike. I have never heard of them.

Looking at the profile on the end I knew that it would have to be dressed. Very sharp edge not rounded at all. Even the expensive hammers like Peddinghaus you have to dress those too and redo the hammer handle.

So off comes the head, it is the only way to do it right. Little bit on the 80 grit belt sander, a little bit with the 120 air grinder and check to see if enough by putting temporarily back on the handle. Nope a little more with a file to clean it up and round a little more. Some 220 grit on the DA sander and starting to look good. Little test and looking real good. Little hand sanding with 220 and then a final hand sanding with some 400 grit. Now over to the buffer with some white compound and nice and pretty. Take a hand plane to where the head use to fit on the handle and shape up, a tad bit of 220 on DA to smooth. Set the head to the handle cut off the little sticking out on the band saw. Install the old wedge.

Here is how the old head compared to the fix hit. See the sharp marks above the arrow on the old. Terrible marks that is hard to plannish. Next row above is how the hammer works with the fix. Nice smooth round hammer indentation.

Now this hammer is worth the money. Took around 45 minutes and the same it does for the expensive hammers. Weight is not bad at all. Little narrow on the width but this hammer will work very well for smaller vessels. Handle could be another ¾ of inch longer if doing a little larger vessel. Below is my set of raising hammers from left to right.
• Peddinghaus border hammer but can use to raise real small area,
• homemade hammer from a ball peen it was what I thought a raising hammer looked like back when I first started raising in the mid 70’s,
• Peddinghaus small raising hammer,
• Peddinghaus medium (200) raising hammer,
• Peddinghaus large (300) raising hammer,
• the new TruStrike hammer,
• Peddinghaus BF raising hammer,
• my deep raising hammer made by a blacksmith and me.
If you are wondering what the ‘S’ and ‘L’ are for on the new hammer there are two different profiles and kind of hard to see.

[saign charlestein]

very cool, Warren. I've been doing a bit of hammer dressing myself lately...(been getting some diamonds in the rough off ebay)


Out of all the raising hammers you have, I like the one you and your blacksmith friend made the most

[warrent]

Thanks Saign, yeah the work by master Elmer Roush is a nice hammer, excellent for vessel with a narrow down neck.

I have looked at ebay too but usually the shipping is more than the hammer.

I wonder what folks do when they buy a hammer like this and not knowing how to dress the head. It is a shame they do not sell hammers ready to work. Maybe have to look to Fretz they are $80.

[AvishaiW]

Nice hammer and very reasonable price.

[saign charlestein]

Ebay's prices are really inflated by the "collecter" market, but I know a couple searches that will let a few slip through the cracks. I've got a few in the last week, for between $10 and $30. Great hammers with just a little TLC. I'll post some pics when I get home...I'm in LA till the 4th.

Also Allcraft has a great selection of hammers that need little to no work, (besides the handles) at great prices. The problem is they don't have a website, and it can be hard to get their specialty catalog. Maybe I'll scan it and post that when I get back as well. Its only hammers and stakes.

[saign charlestein]

So I finally made it home after a long trip for work. I thought I would add a bit to this thread, as I love hammers and almost always dress them to suit my needs.

First are a bunch of hammers that I recently bought on ebay, they all need to be polished and some dressed. I got some real gems here IMO. I got all of them between $7 and $35. I'll only spend more than $50 on a hammer unless it's just very rare, beautiful, and hard to make.



Next is one of my hammer racks. All the hammers that are painted grey are from allcraft and have not been dressed. Although they need to be polished, as sitting in my damp basement they have started to rust a bit. From the store these all have a beautiful mirror polish. These I leave alone as they are made for special tasks. Some have soft edges, some hard, for defining lines etc. Although I may buy duplicates at some point and alter them for other needs. A couple shots of the heads as well.



In the next couple days I'll try and scan and upload Allcrafts specialty catalog (the one with all the hammers and stakes) for anyone who would like to order from them. They're sometimes hard to come by, and they don't have a website, so ordering can be pretty hard unless you go to the store in person....By the way they are carrying my chasing tools and pitch now as well

[Prudence]

I would appreciate any catalog pages from Allcraft.
I've only bought from them once, the "Ultimate Spiculum hammer". The woman that took my order asked if there was anything else I'd like to order. I asked what do you have? and she said lots of tools. I asked if there was a catalog and she said no but if she could find an old one she'd send it with my hammer. No catalog received. I've heard they have some really great tools but how would you know. Do you have to guess or call up and ask about every tool? Reminds me of a place on the West coast where I buy some enameling supplies. They finally got a web site but you can only look online but not order. You can call or fax your credit card number but that's it. Can't tell you how many orders I've started then given up and ordered online from some place else because it was easier.
Sorry 'bout the slight rant about web sites or lack there of.
And thanks for the offer. Pru

[saign charlestein]

I understand Prudence, I just uploaded the catalog to my sponsored section