Engineer's hammer = ?

[Max63]

What do people mean by an engineer's hammer? I just bought a really cute hammer yesterday (yes, I used the C word. I have no use for the hammer but I like the look of it on my desk). Its got a really curvy wooden handle and a small head, large and flat on one side, small ball on the other. Shiny steel. I searched Google images and found that engineer's hammers look completely different so perhpas the shop owner isnt sure himself. PS Whats this Dale Carnegie crap that overtook the forum? Can someone sift it out?

[Glen Duff]

It's mainly for recently-graduated engineer's. There's bold print on the handle stating "hold this end"!

Sorry, couldn't resist.

Glen Duff

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Max63 wrote:

[rcook5]

Take a look at the hammer on the old Soviet flag. That's an engineer's hammer. It's blocky and its got a straight cross peen rather than a ball peen.

--RC "Sometimes history doesn't repeat itself. It just yells 'can't you remember anything I've told you?' and lets fly with a club. -- John W. Cambell Jr.

[Todd Fatheree]

That's big talk from someone unable to properly punctuate. Sorry, couldn't resist.

todd

[Andy Dingley]

What country are you in ?

In the UK, an engineer's hammer is a ball peen

main face is round, the secondary face is a half-ball.

Depending on age, they're either forged or cast steel, but there's always a narrowed neck between the body (where the shaft goes) and the peens.

In Europe, the engineer's hammer is more of a square-section sledge, without this neck. The face is square and the second is a cross-peen (right angles to the shaft). Depending on how far East you go, this can either be centred on the head or at the lower edge of it.

German hammers are centred

French have low peens, with a notched rear to the head Europe is low with a sloped rear a whole range of hammer pictures, look here) sledge hammer (a large engineer's hammer) has an octagonal face and a centred cross peen smith's hammer generally has a straight peen instead of a cross peen, for use when fullering - although smiths use a great many hammers of almost every pattern.

[Puff Griffis]

[bridger]

sounds like a planishing hammer....

[Dave Balderstone]

I have no ideawhat you're talking about. I'm not seeing anything like that.

Of course, I'm using a good news provider, not Google. Supernews does a fantastic job of filtering spam.

[Larry Jaques]

On 11 Jan 2005 01:09:13 -0800, "Max63" calmly ranted:

Could it be a jeweler's chasing hammer like this, but with a larger flat head? Thin and flexible handle at the head, thick at the held end with a teardrop shape? I've always been fascinated by the way those look, too.

HA223

We all do, daily.

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[rcook5]

Boy, you learn something new every day. Thanks Andy!

--RC

"Sometimes history doesn't repeat itself. It just yells 'can't you remember anything I've told you?' and lets fly with a club. -- John W. Cambell Jr.

[Australopithecus scobis]

Yeah, I've had to start a separate "keeper" file just for Mr. Dingley's information!

[Mark & Juanita]

A Technician -- that's the person the engineer uses to get stuff done. At least that works for me. :-)

+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------+ Now we'll just use some glue to hold things in place until the brads dry +--------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

[Andy Dingley]

Would have been more useful if I'd read the original message more carefully though. It's clearly not an engineer's hammer at all, but a jeweller's hammer (variously called a chasing or repousse hammer).

main use of the hammer is to strike a punch or graver, not the work itself.

Note the swollen palm bulb to the shaft. These hammers are hard to find and expensive to buy. A shaft is worth more than a head ! If you're doing this sort of rapidly bouncing work, like engraving, then you really need that bulb.

If the face is bigger and very slightly domed, it's a silversmith's planishing hammer. This is used for a surfce treatment (planishing) after shaping a soft metal.

[Max63]

Thanks all! Chasing hammer indeed! For jewellers? I just show it off. Cost about 9$. Afraid to use it on nails as the shaft is so slender. Thanks again, Max

[Andy Dingley]

You won't hurt the shaft, but you will chew up the face.

I have _lots_ of hammers (about 70 on a quick head-count). The ones in the rack are fair game for almost anything. Woe betide you though if you hit anything hard with the ones from the panel-beating box, or the silversmithing box. The hammers in there have their faces hand-polished to a mirror shine. For a lot of forming work on soft metal this level of smoothness is essential, or the marks transfer to the workpiece.

For a graving hammer as this might be, then it's not too important - after all a graver won't care. But if it's a planishing hammer, that surface should be kept perfect.

[rcook5]

It's not designed for driving nails. It's for delivering repeated light blows to the the tool as it moves across the metal. Think a hand-powered jack hammer. The shaft is slender to give the hammer more bounce and the bulb at the end of the handle aids in control.

--RC "Sometimes history doesn't repeat itself. It just yells 'can't you remember anything I've told you?' and lets fly with a club. -- John W. Cambell Jr.