The Armour Archive

Hi All-

I've got a masonry hammer head that I picked up cheap at a garage sale that I would like to re-purpose into a raising hammer. Any suggestions on how to grind it and specifics on the final shape details would be well appreciated.

Thanks!

No sharp edges or corners.
After that, it ends up being personal taste and how you plan to use it. I often raise with a round hammer with a slightly domed face. Or I use real "raising" hammers. Or a hammer with a square face with rounded edges and corners. It depends on what I am doing and how I feel at the time.

I raise hot, so I have more flexibility in "breaking the rules" than silversmiths and coppersmiths.

Wade

During the grinding process do I need to take to keep the hammer below a certain temperature?

I was taught: If you can't touch it with your fingers it's too hot. That means the area near cutting, not just been cut but you get the idea. It costs nothing to keep a little water near the grinder. If the end is too sharp consider cutting it off with an abrasive cut-off disk rather then grinding all of it into metal dust.

Sean

Once the adze-like edge and bevel have been taken off, you're left with a rectangular cross section there. Round/radius all its edges and corners, very gently round off the face -- not quite flat -- and polish it down to 1200 or 1500 grit. Whatever's the finest carborundum cloth you can get at NAPA or Pep Boys, Kragen Auto or whoever. A mirror polish with buffing is not out of line.

The result is a polished, rectangular hammer face that you can raise with and which won't scar up your work. You'll be well able to control which way you push your metal with a hammer-face shaped like this. Similarly polish the other hammer face too. Don't let anyone else borrow this hammer -- have them instead do up their own, for their own raising use.

I was thinking of grinding down the square face and leaving the chisel end as is for crisping up lines/rolls. Thoughts on that idea?

I actually have a hammer that has an almost chisel like end. I use it for doing recessed bands and borders. You have to be very careful with it. It will ding up the metal something fierce. You could close rolls with it, and I probably have, but very, very carefully. It is very light. Probably a lot lighter than your masonry hammer. I expect that heavier would only hurt more.

When I am raising I usually have at least 3 hammers there so that I can grab the one that "feels right" at the moment.

Wade

That makes sense.

Maybe the better question would be this - if you were to grind down one of the two ends of a masonry hammer to be a raising hammer, which end would you choose?

Gregoire de Lyon wrote:That makes sense.

Maybe the better question would be this - if you were to grind down one of the two ends of a masonry hammer to be a raising hammer, which end would you choose?

Assuming we are actually talking about something that looks like this:

http://www.restockit.com/178-10-brick-h ... =googlepla

I expect that what I would do is start with more hammers.



Then I would likely like to end up with the square head with lots of rounded corners and edges, and the other end shortened to make a reasonable "typical" raising hammer.
Then likely take the next one and weld a piece of good tool steel stock to the narrow end to make a bigger, rectangular end that is way out there. And round all of its corners off too. And, if these were going to be my only hammers, round the square face off more aggressively so I have a shallow dome.

But I actually have a whole bunch of hammers, so I haven't ever actually used a masonry hammer for anything. But I lucked out and went to the Lynch sale.....

Wade

wcallen wrote: Assuming we are actually talking about something that looks like this:

Correct, that's what we are talking about.

wcallen wrote: I expect that what I would do is start with more hammers.

and...

wcallen wrote:But I actually have a whole bunch of hammers, so I haven't ever actually used a masonry hammer for anything. But I lucked out and went to the Lynch sale.....

Wade

Thanks for the help! We'll see what ends up happening.

I use the pointy end of the masonry hammer (smoothed out somewhat) to tidy up hinges - iot's like a cold chisel with an attached handle.

I'll echo Wade's comment - I have a few dozen mirror finished hammers for use, although only 6-8 of them get regular use. For a rectangular faced hammer I'd suggest starting with a machinists hammer.

Scott Martin

A bit of a different style hammer of that sort, but same style of head... I found this thing laying in the road out in the middle of nowhere one morning so I picked out up. I ground both faces so I have a large side for raising and a similarly rounded smaller side for getting into tight spots. The big size is about half inch radius, skinny side around an eight inch radius, both have a slight bit of curve across the width of the faces, and corners of the faces slightly rounded down.

I have used the chisel end of my brick hammer turned raising hammer for tight or agressive raising -- like a thumb or pushing the angled apex of a fan. I'd leave it sharp until you find a project that needs it, then grind to taste. Alsways easier to take it off that add it on . . . I also use a sharpend one to add a wood grain effect on square bar cage stock. I just like the effect.