Recommendation? Forge welding a hammer

J

jdhungerford98

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Aug 17, 2015
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Hey everyone, new member with 5 years experience making knives.
Id like to make a hammer or a couple. I have a huge 2.5" bar of 4140 thats just laying there. My current thought was to cut a chunk, forge weld some 1095/1084/d2/15n20 (i have a lot of this in scrap) on both faces, forge to shape, heat treat the entire head, and temper around 6-700. Any experience/recommendations?
 
If the welds are perfect it may hold up well enough. I would leave out the D2 though. It’s not overly tough, and although I have never tried to forge weld it myself, I have read that is not a great choice for that.
 
Why not just use the 4140? Hammers don’t need to be super duper hard (in fact your anvil will probably appreciate them not being too hard). Lots of hammers made out of 4140, 4340, 1045, etc. in that range.
 
A hammer with a 1095 hardened face would be a potential danger. It could chip and send tiny shrapnel flying. 4140 makes a perfect hammer .... or anvil.
 
Looks like im going to just use the 4140. I have to make a drift as well, i have some h1 laying here, that any good for a drift?
 
If the head is at proper heat, any steel drift will do just fine. To make it easier, I would drill a pilot hole through the stock prior to forging.
I have made several hammers with 4140
-Forge HOT
-2-3 cycle normalize
-Austenitize at 1525-1550F, oil quench with good agitation
-2 temper cycles at 550-600F.
 
Agreed, any steel will make drifting tools just fine. The only thing is a mild steel drift wont last very long. But no problem unless you are making lots of drifted parts.
As mentioned, driftng thru a drilled pilot hole is much faster & accurate than punching without. Its either dumb luck or good experience to simply punch a hole and get it centered nice.

Most of my round & oval drifts are made from Bull Pins. I dunno what alloy they are, but its a medium toolsteel of some kind. Often found at secondhand shops for cheap.

Btw, you can use a hammer head as the die for making a shaping drift. Just use a head what accepts the size & shape of handle you intend to use.
 
Last edited:
Lieblad said:
Agreed, any steel will make drifting tools just fine. The only thing is a mild steel drift wont last very long. But no problem unless you are making lots of drifted parts.
As mentioned, driftng thru a drilled pilot hole is much faster & accurate than punching without. Its either dumb luck or good experience to simply punch a hole and get it centered nice.

Most of my round & oval drifts are made from Bull Pins. I dunno what alloy they are, but its a medium toolsteel of some kind. Often found at secondhand shops for cheap.

Btw, you can use a hammer head as the die for making a shaping drift. Just use a head what accepts the size & shape of handle you intend to use.
Click to expand...
Never thought about using a hammer to make the drift. Is there a good starting size for the drift? I was planning on drilling a 1/4" hole or so.
 
Pre-industrial era, it was common to make the hammer head from wrought iron and weld a piece of high carbon onto the face(s) - which was the same basic process as making an anvil, i.e., a piece of shear steel welded to the body. Wrought iron was generally more available than high carbon and scarce material tended to be more important than labor costs. Modern carbon steels have made the practice obsolete for most tools (although ax makers still insert edges). Your 4140 will make a great hammer.
 
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