Vintage C. Hammond axe

[Wrenchmensch]

This 10 3/4" small utility axe was made in Philadelphia over 100 years ago. It was in the box of "also wons" that accompanied an auctioned wrench I wanted.  The axe is stamped "C HAMMOND PHILA CAST STEEL.  The handle is original and it is firmly fixed in the head. The cross-hatched hammer face appears to have been welded on to the head as part of the routine manufacturing process used by Hammond in producing this axe. Doing this was a common 19th century practice, enabling toolmakers to apply higher grade steel to tools at their highest points of wear.   

[keykeeper]

What makes you think it is welded??

Just curious, as a lot of tools like that were either drop forged, or cast steel in that time period.

[Wrenchmensch]

If you look closely at the hammer, there is a clear distinction in the color of the metal in an irregular line about 3/16" down from the hammer face. I have seen the same welded materials on many axes and on older plowshares like those made by Syracuse Plow company.

[anglesmith]

I agree with Wrenchmensch. In all quality tools the body was forged then steel working faces fire welded on.
I think you will find that by the time drop forging was common, using solid steel was the practice.  "Steeling" Tools  was stanard practice during most of 19th century (Collins Axes were still steeled into the 1930s!), steel being exspensive to make, wrought cheaper. "Cast steel" was the english term for tool steel made in crucibles (poured into ingots then forged into whatever!)  The term was replaced in America with Crucible steel in the early 1900s.
Graeme
PS. I should have added that the best book on the making of axes is  American Axes by Henry J Kauffman. I think that its still in print.

[Branson]

Wiss shears are still made this way --  the "Inlaid" mark on these means that a higher quality steel has been laminated onto the drop forgings.  Early 20th Century broad hatchets and adzes, too.  Old Atha hammers also used this process.  You can see the different line of tool steel or cast steel pretty clearly as they develop patina -- they color differently.

[keykeeper]

I agree that a CUTTING edge would be "steeled" or "inlaid", but he stated the waffle face was welded on.

Why weld on a hammer face? Why would they not use a decent, medium carbon steel to begin with for the face and eye section, then harden and temper out the face? Wouldn't you want a face on a hammer that is not brittle and overly hard, to avoid breakage, and an eye of the piece that is tough, yet not prone to cracking under stress?

I still disagree on the poll of this hatchet being welded on.

Edge, yes. Poll, why?

[keykeeper]

I just found a website with a label from C. Hammond and Son that reads

 "Made of the best refined solid crucible cast steel head and inserted bit carefully hand tempered to proper hardness"

So, What does that mean?

Solid crucible cast steel head? (same piece of steel)

Inserted bit? (higher carbon piece inserted and forge welded)

Compare that to the label indicating forging, which does indicate tool steel head AND bit. No mention of cast steel on this label, just forged from swedish iron.

I stick to my argument, gents.

http://www.yesteryearstools.com/yesteryears%20tools/Hammond%20%28C.%29.html

[anglesmith]

IT is all time and cost related. Prior to 1860-70s and Bessemer's and others, methods of making large tonnage (cheap) steel. Mild and medium carbon steel didn't exist! Tonnage tool steel didn't happen till the development electric arc furnace in the early 1900s Tools could be made from solid cast (crucible) steel from the mid 1700s on, (quality files have always been from cast steel) but it cost!  By the way, from the begining to end of the Sheffield tool steel industry. The tool steel was made from imported Swedish Iron bars!
Graeme.

[Branson]

I agree that a CUTTING edge would be "steeled" or "inlaid", but he stated the waffle face was welded on.
Why weld on a hammer face? Why would they not use a decent, medium carbon steel to begin with for the face and eye section, then harden and temper out the face? Wouldn't you want a face on a hammer that is not brittle and overly hard, to avoid breakage, and an eye of the piece that is tough, yet not prone to cracking under stress?
I still disagree on the poll of this hatchet being welded on.
Edge, yes. Poll, why?

Why weld on a hammer face?  For a harder face.  It's a common enough practice.  It keeps the face from deforming or mushrooming, as seen in some older, inexpensive hammers.  I have a very nice Peddinghaus cross pein hammer.  It's great for forming.  I don't use it for striking chisels and the like because the face is to soft for this work.  I recently got a Heller rounding hammer with the same characteristics, and have to dress both faces because it was used to drive chisels, and both are deformed.

Old cast steel is tough as well as hard.  Properly welded and properly tempered, it isn't prone to cracking.  Smiths I know around here still do this sometimes.

For the best answers, we probably need to get out the Ouija board <grin> and ask the real old timers -- my pre-1913 Atha stone hammer is made this way.

[leg17]

I have a similar hatchet but marked slightly different.

HAMMOND   (in a straight line instead of arched)
PHILADA
CAST STEEL

Anyone know if this is an earlier configuration?
About how old might it be?

[Chillylulu]

Why weld on a hammer face?  For a harder face.  It's a common enough practice.  It keeps the face from deforming or mushrooming, as seen in some older, inexpensive hammers.  I have a very nice Peddinghaus cross peen hammer.  It's great for forming.  I don't use it for striking chisels and the like because the face is to soft for this work.  I recently got a Heller rounding hammer with the same characteristics, and have to dress both faces because it was used to drive chisels, and both are deformed.

I have some new pedinghaus forming hammers. They are still soft, as are ball peens.  Generally, I think, hammers that are for striking other metals( including ball peen hammers) are soft, while hammers that hit nails, axes,  etc. are hardened.

I have 20 or more Fretz hammers - all forming hammers.  They are made from stainless steel. All forming hammers for non-steel smithing are soft in my experience.  When first bought all would normally be dressed and polished. By dressing I mean sanding or filing the edges of the face and the face itself. They should be polished to a mirror finish.  Any imperfection shows up in the metal you are smithing (generally gold or silver, but copper and brass, anymore, also.) Precious metals just cost too much for everyone now a days.

That's what I seem to remember being taught, and the reason you don't hit two hammers together. Also taught that you should never use a claw hammer for forming on an anvil, you could miss and hit the anvil. Two hard faces hit together could cause chipping of one of the faces. On the other hand, peen hammers, being made from softer steel, would deform rather than chip.

Chilly

[rusty]

>never use a claw hammer for forming on an anvil...
Claw hammers, particularly low cost ones, tend to be very very hard, mostly because it is easier to fully harden something than to medium harden it 'just right'. Since nails are small, and soft, it is generally not that big a problem.
Anvils are not all that hard, and hitting it with a fully hardened tool is not nice to the anvil at all...
Also why you don't cold chisel directly on an anvil if you can avoid it...

And if it is not *your* anvil, serious wrath will follow if you fill it with dents ;P

[Chillylulu]

I think we smith in two different worlds.  The silver, gold, and copper I form are very soft.  My anvil top and horn is smoother than new - if someone dented it up with a bunch of swacks I'd have to spring for a new one.  Luckily my biggest anvil only weighs 35 lbs.

Here's a picture with my biggest (normally used) smithing hammer.



Chilly

[scottg]

Ohhhh yummy hammer Chili!
 I am liking that!
  Couple quick questions. Is that really a sad iron with no handle sitting in a trivet?
 And how about tell the tale of those squiggly punches? Never saw that, and you have 2 sizes in the same pic, so they must work for you.


Ordinarily, lath hammer faces are not steeled. But a waffle will wear really fast if they aren't. I think it was the waffle face that caused this. I expect it cost considerably extra at the time too.

 I will offer to disagree on ball pein hammers being soft.
 Most I have found that are less than 100 years old are harder than a hounds tooth! Ridiculous hard, you can't really weld to them at all. Some super carbon stuff that acts like overhardened cast iron, and won't take a weld.
 
 Sledges and mauls, sometimes axes, I often weld mild steel wings onto, so the handles last practically forever.  Common ball peins won't work for this. I've tried.
   
 

    yours Scott

[scottg]

>never use a claw hammer for forming on an anvil...
Claw hammers, particularly low cost ones, tend to be very very hard,

 Most modern claw hammers I have worked, and most screwdriver shanks and punches and prybars too, are air hardening steel.  It became common a generation ago.
  Now about everything you see in these tools is air hardening steel.

   This makes altering them really nice!  You can heat up to bright cherry and bend or manipulate them any way you like. Then just leave to cool naturally in open air. They will return to the same state you found them in, except now they will reach around the corner or whatever you altered it to do. Oh, they arc weld a treat too.
As long as you don't quench the steel when its hot, you are totally fine.
  If you do quench when they are hot, they turn into unannealed glass.
 One touch and they shatter.

 I was adding a striking face to some cheap Chinese prybars. First 2 times I tried, I quenched the steel after welding. They snapped at the first light swat.
 Only took me 2 times to figure it out though (doh :)

 I've been using these bars for several years now. I am surprised they don't put striking faces on all of them! Every one of these bars I see have busted crappy handles in a short time.   3/8" mild steel plate works a treat. 

 To make them, you first pry the handle off and drill it the rest of the way though.
File it out square to match the shank.  (Doesn't have to be perfect the handle will give some. )
Then drive the handle way down the shank, away from the heat that is to come.
Cut and weld your striking faces (let air cool) and then drive the handles back up against your new face.

   A tiny quick tack bead just below the handle will keep it ever slipping back down the shank. And if you are fast it won't even heat up enough to melt your handle.

 


 
 yours Scott