Making a forging hammer

JTknives

JTknives

Joined
Jun 11, 2006
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So i am making a japanese style forging hammer at work and my question is how big do i make the handle hole. Also im milling it out of d2 what hardness should i make it. It has a 1.75 face.
 
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I had the d2 laying around so i was like why not. I have not used this style of hammer befor but it seams to be a good design to have most if not all its mass on the striking side. It seames like it would lend its self to preciseley placed hammer strikes.
 
JT, I think you'd be better off with something like 4140 or S7... but I suppose D2 would work well with a solid heat-treat.

Keep in mind most Japanese cutlers hammers are canted down a little. I'm not saying that's the only way to do it, but most I've seen are. In fact I measured the offset on a bunch of them, and there was 1/4" from the back of the hammer to the handle on the top of the hole, and 3/8" on the bottom side of the hole.

Please post pics when you're done, I'm interested to see what you come up with. :)
 
I will post a picture when I'm done. I'm milling it out the rest of the way tomorrow. so we shall see.
 
Do you have a cnc milling machine? I don't know how to cut ovals on a standard milling machine. This sounds like a neat project. Are you going to make the handle yourself, too?
 
well at work we have 8 cnc milling machines, 2 cnc laths 1 multis unit (lath+mill, has 2 chucks and it will switch the part from one chuck to the other so it can do doth ends. very very nice machine)., 2 manual laths, 2 knee mills, 2 wire EDM machines, 1 edm hole popper, 1 edm electrode etcher, 1 surface grinder, 1 jig grinder, 1 large coolant cooled band saw and 1 smaller band saw, welders and cutting torches, 1 large heat treat oven with 2 compartments one for high temps and the other for tempering, many tool grinding machines ( we have one that will make a 1" carbide end mill in like 5 min from a solid round chunk of carbide), and many more cool things, o and i almost for got 1 partridge in a pair tree. i am very lucky to work there as i love it and they don't mind me working on projects off the clock.

but i don't think i'm going to cnc out the handle hole. i think i'm just going to use say maybe a 1/2 end mill and just slot it out with that. so the hole will be 1/2" wide by about 1" long. as i have the handle right now and that seams like it will work nicely. i will make a handle later depending how much i like the hammer. but for now i just picked up one and trimmed it to length and removed all the glossy coating and gave it a nice stain.
 
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JTknives said:
well at work we have 8 cnc milling machines, 2 cnc laths 1 multis unit (lath+mill, has 2 chucks and it will switch the part from one chuck to the other so it can do doth ends. very very nice machine)., 2 manual laths, 2 knee mills, 2 wire EDM machines, 1 edm hole popper, 1 edm electrode etcher, 1 surface grinder, 1 jig grinder, 1 large coolant cooled band saw and 1 smaller band saw, welders and cutting torches, 1 large heat treat oven with 2 compartments one for high temps and the other for tempering, many tool grinding machines ( we have one that will make a 1" carbide end mill in like 5 min from a solid round chunk of carbide), and many more cool things, o and i almost for got 1 partridge in a pair tree. i am very lucky to work there as i love it and they don't mind me working on projects off the clock.
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Aaaaaaahhhh!!!! :eek:
 
The hammer is getting ready for heat treat, here is a picture before it goes in. i took it with my camera phone so its not real good. its in its foil package waiting to some hot loving.
 

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yay the hammer is all done. it got the d2 just under 50 rc. I had to temper it at 1100f to get it there. man when i pulled out the hammer head from its foil packet and it was glowing red i was like o crap now i have to redo it. but i checked it on the HRC tester and it came in just under 50 so thats great. i had to use the hydraulic press to get the handle to seat all the way down. its very nice. i will post a pictures of it tonight
 
OK here are the pictures, it feels good in the hand. now i cant wate to to use it. Its hard to tell from the pictures but it is canted just a bit. what do you think ?

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I was shooting for 3 pounds, but after all was said and done the head weighed 2.75 pounds. then with the handle attached it weighs 3.25 pounds. its a perfect weight i think. it does not feel like a 3.25 pound hammer and it handles very nicely. now to beat some hot steel. i guess the advantage of d2 is that i don't have to worry about the heat from the hot steel messing up the hardness. now i do have a large chunk of cpm-3v, I wounder how that would work :)
 
I know absolutely nothing about the quality of a hammer and what's good or bad:confused:, but I've seen and handled this hammer and I think it's great. Not that my opinion means much, but there it is!:)
 
bubba-doll said:
I know absolutely nothing about the quality of a hammer and what's good or bad:confused:, but I've seen and handled this hammer and I think it's great. Not that my opinion means much, but there it is!:)
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Maybe i should get you to model it for me ;)
 
That may not be a bad idea... you do have "knifemaker hands" :)




Oh and I think you should turn the 3v into a crash axe :cool:
 
JT, that looks just great, fantastic work.

one thing though, you need to properly wedge that handle, unsafe hammers are like unsafe swords, if any part of it can go flying off it will and it will do damage. You need to cut a 1/8th wide slot into the end of the handle that goes into the eye, about as far down the handle as a little less than the thickness of the head, you don't want any of the slot poking out from under the eye. After that drive the handle back into the hammer eye, then insert a hardwood wedge into the slot. After that make two small metal wedges, and drive them in diagonally to the hardwood slot wedge, leave a little bit of handle poking out over the top of the hammer head. I have had handles that just kept coming loose, until I learned to properly insert and wedge a hammer handle, and never had the problem since.
 
JT, Also, let the hammer do the work. A Japanese hammer falls into the work....not pushed. If you try to hammer hard, it will be going all over the place. It will take a bit of getting used to, but once acclimated, you will be able to forge very precise bevels.
Stacy
 
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