Spanish flea market finds & other stuff that might be of interest!

[I'mSoSharp]

I didn't realize holly had such nice color. I've always just seen it as white. Here it's usually too small to be of any use. And it's a terrible invasive that we're trying to get rid of.

A little bit of the colour change could be from grubby hands but it's definitely mellowed, I'll not touch the small one & see what happens.
I've read that it's popular in veneering & marquetry when white is needed & somewhere mentioned that to maintain it's whiteness it had to be cut at a certain time of year, these bits came from a log I picked up in the UK while walking round the grounds of a stately home that's open to the public, the gardeners had cut down a huge holly tree so I asked if I could have a couple of logs that had small burls on them, they were happy for me to take them, the trunk was about 16" diameter & the logs were unbelievably hard to split, using borrowed large cold chisels & heavy hammer they just refused.
Apparently the Romans & Ancient Greeks liked holly for handles! I don't bother checking too much about whether a wood type is good for handles or not I just use whatever I have on the basis of what the particular bit of wood looks & feels like, it either works or I learn something the hard way........

The fact that holly around where you are is invasive & you're trying to get rid of it sounds like an excellent excuse to do some experimenting.

 

[I'mSoSharp]

This is the small hatchet head from post #318 after a clean, I have no idea who or what GP is.....

Another wrought head I'm in the process of etching, should be able to show this & the head from post #300 finished soon.

Just picked this up at the weekend, nothing special other than a name I haven't heard of before & very little luck with searches, a thread here- https://www.bladeforums.com/threads/hatchet-question-made-in-germany.1021795/#post-15230731

The chisel from 318 cleaned up, another Peugeot! And the thinnest mortice chisel I've seen.

This image of the stamp is like an optical illusion, can you see the letters either stamped or raised?

And the claw hammer from 318 after a clean, apparently popular in Germany & known as a "Latthammer" used for roofing.

 

[Ernest DuBois]

There is a class of small chisel like that used in mounting a particular kind of hinge, mostly for cabinet doors, inside window blinds 'n such. The leaf of the hinge inserted in a thin mortise and then pinned externally through the style, not an easy task.

Here the Dutch version which deviates slightly from the more typical French and German and elsewhere patterns, if you can make anything of the poor photo. The chisel is called knierbeitel in Dutch for the reference and exists in a wide variety of forms, this standard mortise configuration being only one. Of course there are no restrictions on use, and I've found it even handy for getting wedges out of axe handles.
The spike on the hammer used to chip holes in slate tiles and since the work is on the roof it also comes in handy for setting your hammer aside, driving the spike into a rafter.

 

[I'mSoSharp]

Thanks for the chisel explanation E Ernest DuBois , interesting.

 

[Square_peg]

I have no idea who or what GP is...

Now you do.

 

[I'mSoSharp]

Now you do.

Haha, I thought the same but I imagine it's Spanish made.

Today I found these, yet another Bahco that has "Bahco" stamped into the head, a lovely small coach wrench to add to the collection, & a (far away from it's place of birth) driven spindle, really quite useful to me.

 

[Square_peg]

a (far away from it's place of birth) driven spindle, really quite useful to me.

They're nice because the motor is out of the way.

 

[I'mSoSharp]

Recently I've picked up a couple of Bahco 1-1\4lb hatchets (Posts 318 & 326), they seem to get less than stellar reviews online to the extent one YouTube "star" rates them as the worst of the worst.

Of the two I picked up one is marked "made in Germany" the other isn't, the shapes are identical.

The "made in Germany" stamped one looks like the newer of the two but seeing as they were both in a very bad state that's may not be the case.
The German stamped one had a shorter fatter handle (which I broke, to be fare it did look a bit rotten), I believe these are both factory handles as they both had plastic wedges though different.
14 & 15"

Now to my point, before I broke the handle on the shorter one I used it & didn't nurse it, chopping into some knarly old dry olive & it didn't take any significant damage.
I have some hardness files (I know they are very subjective) that measure exactly the same on both edges, 60HRC bites, 55 is debatable & 50 skates so that would appear about what would be expected from a properly hardened edge.

I wonder if I have a pair of older hatchets that don't have the problems newer ones have? I have also read online that newer ones are made in China which appears to be false as the official website shows only European & south American factories.
Does anyone else here own one? Does it differ from these? What are your thought? Would like to know.

 

[Square_peg]

Bahco's files are made in Portugal. Looks like they have production sites in many countries.
Scroll to the bottom.
https://www.bahco.com/int_en/sna-europe

 

[I'mSoSharp]

Had a bit of time on my hands the last few days............. Lockdown, only leaving my home for essential work, supermarket or chemist........
So amongst other things I did some handling.

The two Bahcos, the long handle one turned out to be aftermarket & needed fitting properly, the other I made from a piece I had kicking about, 100% real wood (don't know what it is ).

And a few hammer heads handled.

 

[jake pogg]

Right on-good thinking;i also realised that if i want to get caught up on projects,handles in particular,i must use the virus!
Good job on all of those(i think...i'm not a cobbler,and many other tools here are from the trades i'm not familiar with).
That French cross-pein looks lovely,ready to be tried out in forging....I'd bet it's very effective and fun to use.

 

[I'mSoSharp]

That French cross-pein looks lovely

You had to say it didn't you? You couldn't let it lie, you couldn't just leave it alone. haha.
That hammer isn't a French hammer, honestly it isn't even like the hammer you call a French hammer (that also isn't a French hammer ).

For some strange reason I can't load images right now, when I can I'll show what I mean so others can put me straight!

 

[I'mSoSharp]

The hammer from the post above is on the left with another one like it, the two on the right are what's referred to (wrongly I believe) as French pattern.
You can see the peins aren't the same.
1)

I don't know what this pattern is called but the one on the right I know as a London pattern, so maybe...
2)

London pattern not to be confused with what many will know as a Warrington pattern.
3)

Also a similar pattern I don't know the name of.
4)

The two on the left are my main forging hammers, I know this cross pein pattern as Engineers or maybe Machinist.
5)

The Engineer's compared to the "French".
6)

Funnily enough they are almost identical apart from the cut-out.
7)

Which leads me to ask, why a cut-out? Perhaps so it could hammer tight into the corner of a recess on the front side? Something the Engineers pattern can't do. Maybe hammer a rivet in a recessed lock box?
Maybe it is therefore a locksmiths hammer?

An image just showing the different peins of the non-French hammer.
8)

To be honest I don't know for sure but I think French pattern is what the USA & others have coined as a name because it probably originated in France.
But, do you think years ago in France they called it a French hammer? I'll bet they didn't, I'll bet it was called after it's use or maybe the town it originated in.
We need a French native who's knowledgeable in old tools to tell us.

I've added numbers to the images so if anyone can comment on what any of these hammers are called they can use the image number.

As always..... Maybe

 

[Square_peg]

Wonderful to see the 'rainbow of flavors' of those old peining hammers. So many trades are just not practiced anymore. We may never know what they were all used for or what subtle nuances appeared for a particular task. It's fascinating stuff.

Thanks or all the pics!

 

[jake pogg]

Hmm...You're right,there's more to it all than just a handy "French" designation.
(certainly more than i'm aware of).
We definitely see a number of different tools represented here.
Very roughly i'd say that the ones with very narrow,thin peins are different from forging hammers.
They may be an Upholsterer's(to drive small tacks between thumb and forefinger),or for a variety of machinist's tasks,such as riveting("locksmiths"(all the assorted whitesmiths)always had a lot of cold-riveted joinery in tight places to deal with).
The two on the right in photo 1) is what i always thought of as "French pattern"...Not even sure why,just picked it up ambiently.
They probably Are forging tools,and that's why the center of the pein is lifted up to be aligned with center axis of mass.

I dunno!...Good question(-s)!...And Great photos,of some lovely hammers!

 

[I'mSoSharp]

Wonderful to see the 'rainbow of flavors' of those old peining hammers. So many trades are just not practiced anymore.

Thanks, I never pass on an old head at a flea market, the rusty one in the bottom of a box or rubbish often turn out to be the old gem.

Very roughly i'd say that the ones with very narrow,thin peins are different from forging hammers.
They may be an Upholsterer's(to drive small tacks between thumb and forefinger)

Yes you are quite right, the Warringtons (image 2) are pretty much pin or tack hammers, usually used for carpentry type tasks like the London pattern (2). I was just showing a comparison of shapes without taking weight into account.
Below are some hammers even more specific to upholstery, these are related to saddle/leather/horse tack hammers. As has been said there's lots of cross over, a hammer is a hammer & has lots of uses, just some are better at one task than others.

This is the nicest upholstery hammer I have.

The top one has a magnetic tip, the shape is to help in conserve it's magnetism. This ones not very old.

Tack, leather & maybe tinners hammers.

Some of the above are heads I've had a while that I've got round to handling since Lockdown, below is stretching "off topic" to it's limit, it's some of the parts I'm using right now on another project that started when I found a very rusty old sewing machine someone had thrown out, looks like it'd been outside for years.

 

[jake pogg]

Those are really neat hammers...that first one is pure Art Deco!
Thanks!
(Don't do Anything to that sewing machine-once the crisis and all bs is over,it'll be the making of your fortune!I mean,just Look at that color!!!!Spain is such a soulful place,i loved bumming about Barcelona...Lovely,colorful city...the cheapest muscatel down in the historic Port district...).

 

[I'mSoSharp]

Don't do Anything to that sewing machine

Too late! Haha

The nice upholstery hammer looks like it's head is crooked, it isn't it's just the image.

Agreed on Barcelona, a magical city with some amazing buildings thanks to Antoni Gaudi.

 

[I'mSoSharp]

Finally finished the two wrought heads, pleased with how they've turned out.

This is the larger one that looks like the usual wrap with a high carbon bit.

This is the smaller one that looks like it had the high carbon bit "sandwiched" first before a wrap over that?

And this is how the sewing machine turned out. Sorry off topic

 

[Square_peg]

Love it!
Those little wroughties turned out great!

Are you going to race the sewing machine?