Curious little hammer ?

[robgraham]

A friend popped in this afternoon with a box load of tools from a neighbour of his who had died. All hand tools with some I've no idea about. Nearly all will go to a tool charity, but there's a nice little claw hammer I'll keep - the head is some 70 mm face to claws, but it's the shaft that is unusual in that it is turned, 240 mm long and has a 30mm diameter bulb at the end, but 10mm for most of the length.

Is it possible it is decorative rather than practical as rather unwisely the shaft is made of a mahogany and has split? I'll turn up a new one in ash.

Rob

[Andy Burns]

It doesn't say "Bluebird" on the handle does it?

[Nightjar]

Any chance of a few pictures? There are so many different specialised hammers and the shape of the head might help identify it.

Colin Bignell

[Bob Minchin]

It might be a chasing hammer used by metal workers. These tend to be a little like a ball pein hammer but with a shorter, larger diameter flat end compare to the ball end.

Google for some images to see.

Bob

[Graham.]

All the rage again, or perhaps they never went away. I saw an edible toffee hammer in a traditional sweet shop in Keithley

[Owain]

As a child I begged and begged and begged for a tray of Bluebird toffee.

My parents were not pleased after spending the money to find that I didn't want the toffee.

Owain

[robgraham]

I'll see what I can do about a picture - I don't have anywhere to post one at the moment. The head is just a small scale claw hammer - 70mm long x 15 wide x 18 deep. The steel is quite clean with little rust and there might be a little bit of burr round the face to suggest it has been used for hammering.

My thinking is that it would have been used for upholstery perhaps but then why the poor choice of wood for the shaft.

Rob

[Nightjar]

Upholstery hammers usually have long narrow heads. I was wondering about a shoe maker's hammer. However, while the back half of the head on those is curved like a claw hammer, they often have no V notch or, if they do, it is quite small.

Colin Bignell

[Frank Erskine]

I wonder why a toffee hammer would have a claw...

[Andy Burns]

To pull edible nails out of chocolate logs?

[Rick Hughes]

or Thorntons

[newshound]

Could it be Maxwell's silver hammer?

[Bob Eager]

or Maxwell

[Bob Eager]

Beat me to it...

[Graham.]

Still waiting for a testimonial picture, (from the) O-OO P!

[Grimly Curmudgeon]

Bang, bang.