Making a Small Brass Hammer Tutorial

[Mike Henderson]

I recently wrote a tutorial on making a small brass hammer, like the ones shown in the pictures. You can access the tutorial here.

You can make a hammer like these for less than $10. Glen Drake sells some like this for quite a bit more.

Chester toolworks sells some very nice plane hammers, also (just to put in a plug)

Mike

[You can get the 7/8" brass from Online Metals. If you want a different size head, look here.]

[Jim Koepke]

Great Mike.

I always enjoy when you share your experience and techniques.

thanks,

jim

[jeremy levine]

While I am missing a tool or two your tutorial was a great read and a great idea.
Seems like the perfect project for a class. Cheap, quick and the finished product is very useful (and cool)

[John Schreiber]

A nice project and a nice tutorial. Someday when I get a lathe . . . .

Thanks,

[Tom Henderson2]

Nicely done Mike.

The brass work can be done in a drill press, for those (like me) that aren't lathe-equipped. Some creativity would still be required for the handle, though....

-TH

[Dave Anderson NH]

Nice tutorial Mike. For some strange reason many of the steps seem familiar to me.

[Mike Henderson]

Nice tutorial Mike. For some strange reason many of the steps seem familiar to me.

Ah, yes, Dave. But you don't make all the mistakes like I make.

Mike

[Lewis Biggs]

Thanks for the nice tutorial -- I'm going to give it a try. I've been using a wooden mallet for adjusting my planes, but it's a bit heavy to produce consistent results. Sure, I could buy one, but my shopping list is always an order of magnitude longer then my budget!

[Mike Henderson]

Nicely done Mike.

The brass work can be done in a drill press, for those (like me) that aren't lathe-equipped. Some creativity would still be required for the handle, though....

-TH

Good idea about using the drill press, brother Henderson. For the handle on my first hammer, I roughed it out on a bandsaw and then smoothed it on a stationary belt sander. Finished sanding by hand. I borrowed one of those tenon cutters from a friend to cut the tenon at the top of the handle.

The problem is getting the handle symmetrical - it's real easy to do more on one side than the other. But if you were going to make a curved handle like on the Glen Drake hammers, that might be the best approach.

Mike

[Michael Pilla]

Excellent tutorial, very generous of you to package it up so neatly and share it here.
Many thanks!

Michael

[Michael Hammers]

Wow, great tutorial Mike...between this and the carving you have been quite prolific as of late.
I would not give up my Chester ToolWorks nor my Drake hammer, but I would love to make a couple of my own....
I may have missed it but what did you use to cut the decorative grooves?
I really enjoy your work, it is very inspiring.
MSH

[Mike Henderson]

Wow, great tutorial Mike...between this and the carving you have been quite prolific as of late.
I would not give up my Chester ToolWorks nor my Drake hammer, but I would love to make a couple of my own....
I may have missed it but what did you use to cut the decorative grooves?
I really enjoy your work, it is very inspiring.
MSH

Thanks for your kind words about the tutorial, Michael. I used my parting tool turned sidewards to cut the grooves. My parting tool is a V-shaped tool - to use it as a parting tool, you hold the tool upright (you'd see the V from the side). To cut the grooves on the brass I hold the V-tool so you see the V looking downward on it and push it into the brass such that the top edge contacts the brass. It cuts the brass easily.

I do the same when cutting decorative grooves on wood - for example when I make a chisel handle or a mallet I often cut similar decorative grooves.

The grooves on the brass are deeper than I'd like because I was using a chuck and couldn't see one side while I was cutting the other side. Of course, I could have measured and marked the locations, but I'm more of a "this looks good" turner and make my decorative marks by eye. However, when I took it out of the chuck, I found one side was "wider" than the other. So then I had to go deeper to even them out.

My advice would be to mark the locations and just cut a very mild set of grooves. I think it would look better.

Mike

[Pedro Reyes]

Mike,

Thanks for sharing, I don't thank posters often enough. Very nice read, nicely done. I have the lathe, the tools... I just don't have the wood planes to use it on

I do have some dado planes (wood) and I plan to make my own someday.

I guess this is an excuse to get some .

/p

[John Dykes]

Always figured I wasn't talented enough to own a lathe...

But it looks like even I could actually do that!

hmmm -

- jbd in Denver

[Lars Thomas]

Nice tut, thanks for posting. Lars