Tool Talk
Picture Forum => Picture Forum => Topic started by: baumgrenze on October 04, 2014, 12:14:42 AM
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This hammer, made by C. E. Bonner Mfg. Co, Champaign, IL, patented 5 March 1901, first belonged to my maternal grandfather, John Zimmerman (3/5/1872 - 5/18/1962), West View Farm, Eureka, IL. He gave it to his daughter, Elizabeth, (3/3/1907 - 4/14/2005), who passed it along to me. It appears to have been made from cast steel. One face of the hammer was roughened with a repeated rope pattern; the other was smooth. The claws at the bottom of the handle may have broken off in use. If so, it was before Aunt Elizabeth was given it. The current length is 5-1/8" and the head end is 2-1/8" x 5/8" x 5/8".
I'd love to see a photo of an intact hammer if this is really the case.
thanks
baumgrenze
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Welcome to Tool Talk!!
Your hammer is probably more broken than you think.
C E Bonner was discussed here back in 2011 when Jimwrench asked about Bonner.
(http://www.papawswrench.com/vboard/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=1655.0;attach=5618;image)
http://www.papawswrench.com/vboard/index.php?topic=1655.0 (http://www.papawswrench.com/vboard/index.php?topic=1655.0)
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Thanks for pointing me in the right direction.
I found some nice images on an antique site,
Dunroven Antiques
W Gordon Heath, Clinton, TN
http://www.rubylane.com/item/633545-1585/Vintage-C-E-Bonner-Crate-Hammer
I made a composite in Photoshop of views of the 'crate hammer' that shows both sides of the tool. It was designed to engage a nail at both ends of the opening in the handle.
Am I wrong in concluding that it is made of cast steel and that it was perhaps designed with insufficient material around the opening when in the hands of a robust young farmer faced with a nail rusted into a piece of wood.
Grandpa married on 1/1/01 and would have been around 29 when he began his family of 10 children and began farming 80 acres across the road from his father.
US Pat 669106 cited elsewhere in the forum is for a nail pulling bar with an engaging hole near the middle. It claims no included hammer head.
I can see why Grandpa gave the hammer to Aunt Elizabeth. With half the handle gone he would have seen it as a 'woman's tool.'
thanks,
baumgrenze
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What cast steel means depends on who said it and about when it was said...
I would say from the look of the grain in the picture (as best I can make out) that it is made from moderatly hard steel tho. If it was case iron, it would have broken with a coarse grain, if it was cast malliable, it would have bent considerable before fracturing. Mild steel would have bent a little and torn at the edges. It also shows twisting shear, so it was reasonably hard.
(It may well have been made from steel referred to as 'cast steel' at the time it was made)
After they stopped calling other things cast steel, it generally referred to steel cast at the ingot level, not 'cast into a small shape' like cast iron things.