why would a sledge mushroom?

[FLINT77]

I found this Warwood Cross Pein sledge hammer on a 31 1/2" handle.
2 things were curious
First and primarily, the head of the hammer is all mushroomed. I've never seen a hammer of any kind do this. Do you think the steel is soft, or was someone beating on something way too hard? I haven't hit it with a file yet to see how hard it is, I just hit it with a wire wheel to clean it up some.
The maul is stamped WARWOOD and 8 and then also X42X I'm not sure what the X42X stamp means.
The second curious thing is that the handle wasn't wedged at all. I'm assuming that the handle was original. It looked sufficiently old and usually a less than 36" handle is an indication that something has a little age. The wear on the head doesn't seem to jive with a handle that isn't well secured. Maybe it fit much tighter however many decades ago it was in use?

 

[Danke42]

Someone was hitting something harder than the hammer (a lot).

They probably broke a few handles and got tired of wedging them.

 

[FLINT77]

ok yeah, I just went out and ran a couple files across the head and the steel seems really hard. the files just skated off. I did some google searches and seemed to get the impression that Warwood is a quality brand - still making hammers too after more than 150 years! Maybe I'll try to clean it up with a grinder and re-haft it.

 

[Square_peg]

Warwood is a good brand and still making striking tools in America.

Any sledge hammer that didn't eventually mushroom would instead chip with wear, a much more dangerous scenario especially if you're not wearing safety glasses.

 

[Hickory n steel]

I would say someone was hitting the face of it with an even larger hammer in some form of blacksmithing application, like one would a hot cut.

 

[Bigfattyt]

Repeated hard impacts on tough objects.

 

[FLINT77]

cool, well, it has more or less survived this long, hopefully I can clean it up and give it a second life.

 

[jblyttle]

I see that all the time, and it is what you would expect on a hammer that saw lots of hard use. Like Square Peg said, this is by design as chipping is not good. Your file test doesn't sound right. A hammer face- especially one that mushrooms, cannot be as hard as an axe bit. Maybe you are feeling an oxidation layer.

 

[I'mSoSharp]

Nice head.
It's just seen a lot of use over the years, dress the mushrooming off with a grinder, re-handle & enjoy many more years of use.

 

[FLINT77]

I see that all the time, and it is what you would expect on a hammer that saw lots of hard use. Like Square Peg said, this is by design as chipping is not good. Your file test doesn't sound right. A hammer face- especially one that mushrooms, cannot be as hard as an axe bit. Maybe you are feeling an oxidation layer.

Yeah I thought about that so I will try the file on it again once I grind some of that mushrooming off

 

[Square_peg]

I've seen 20 pound sledges used for concrete demo that had lost 3/4" of face due to mushrooming. In my younger days I could make full round house swings of a 20 pound sledge with one hand. Those hammers got worked hard!

 

[jake pogg]

I would say someone was hitting the face of it with an even larger hammer in some form of blacksmithing application, like one would a hot cut.

Very likely that is what this sledge was used for.
The very hard surface is consistent with this-that is the result of work-hardening of the face.
It was common to not wedge handle of a Struck tool.That hard of an impact (+ temperature) will most likely loosen any conventional seating/wedging job,and if left unwedged it could be easily re-seated before/during work.
Handles of struck tools are also commonly left long outside the eye,helps when the loose head starts backing off...

 

[FLINT77]

just an update. knocked some of the mushrooming down with the grinder, but did the vast majority of the work with files. got it back looking like a hammer.

then hung it on an unused old link handle I found, cut down to 32" and octagonalized with a hand rasp, and then coated with my new fav mixture (1/3 pure tung, 1/3 citrus solvent, 1/3 pine tar). finished length 31"

 

[Yankee Josh]

just an update. knocked some of the mushrooming down with the grinder, but did the vast majority of the work with files. got it back looking like a hammer.

then hung it on an unused old link handle I found, cut down to 32" and octagonalized with a hand rasp, and then coated with my new fav mixture (1/3 pure tung, 1/3 citrus solvent, 1/3 pine tar). finished length 31"

Wow that looks so much better! I can appreciate the amount of work that takes after having just done that myself to a large falling wedge.
How hard (or soft) was the steel? I always thought they would have a medium-low hardness on the face with softer steel behind.

 

[FLINT77]

thanks, yeah, lot of filing. didn't seem like it was much softer than some of my axes. once I got into the steel and past the outer 'rust crust' the files bit in ok, definitely would not call it soft. also didn't notice any differences in hardness but was mostly working pretty close to the face