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How to Rehandle and Repair that ‘Old Hammer’
- 2 Parts Part 1 There is a world of old collectible and user hammers
out there floating around just waiting to be resurrected. Hammers are one
type of tools, by there n The one part of the hammer that sometimes suffers the most is the handle. The caring carpenter takes good care of his, but even his can develop a stress crack in the handle. The Fool, well he always uses too small and the wrong type of hammer for the job. That’s why you always see so many old hammer heads at the flea markets with broken out handles. So get out there and pick up a few old hammers with bad handles and see how easy they are to replace. If you pick up a good quality hammer, look in old tool catalogs and try to replace the handle with one as close to original as possible. Some came with round handles, some octagon. If you can’t find out, then use a handle you like.
Place the hammer head in a vise between wooden jaws to protect the head. Use a fine tooth hand saw to cut off the old handle. Make the cut as close as possible, but above the hammer head.
Cut a piece of wood stick for a punch just a little bit smaller than the size of the shank that is left in the head. A few taps and the shank should come right out.
If you happen to get one that doesn’t seem to want to move, take a drill with a ¼’ drill bit and drill down through the shank to right above the point of the metal wedge. I take a 20d nail, grind the point flat and use as a punch to drive the wedge out. Then try your wooden stick again and the shank should now come out. If someone glued the handle in last time you may have to drill several holes and do a little chisel work.
This is an original 13oz. Belknap Bluegrass hammer head and an original 13oz. Belknap Bluegrass replacement handle. I have had the handle for quite some time, but never could find a good hammer head to fit it until now. Lay the hammer head on top of the handle and mark with a pencil all around the handle at the point that you want the bottom of the head to rest. I mark mine about ½” to ¾” inch above the top shoulder ears of the handle as in the picture above. You see a lot hammers that people have replaced the handle and they put the head way up too far near the end. Probably to lazy to do the job right. You get the most strength down near the shoulders. This being a 13oz. Hammer, I am making the total length from the bottom of the handle to the top of the hammer head between 12” to 12 ½” overall. If your hammer is a 16oz. to 20oz. Then make the total length about 13” to 13 ¼”. At the pencil mark you made at the top of the handle, take a very thin flat file and with the file on edge, file down along the line to a depth of about 1/16” deep all around the handle at that line. I use a Swiss Pattern file about 1/16” thick. What you want to do is to create a small shoulder for the head to eventually set on. Don’t worry about getting this line perfectly straight at this time. Most people just jamb the head to where they want it to go, but this shoulder cut makes a nicer looking job.
When it comes to shaping the end of the handle to fit the head, I use a Shoe Rasp. This is a handy rasp to use because it is small in size, has a flat side with fine on one end and coarse on the other. The other side is half round, fine and coarse. File from the end of the handle down about an inch, several strokes with the coarse flat side of the rasp. Turn the handle over to the other edge and file the same. Turn the handle so the flat side of the handle is up and file an equal amount. Flip it over and repeat. Try to take an equal amount off of each side. Try the head, if too tight, file a little more with the fine side of the rasp. Try head and rasp some more, until the head start on.
Stick the handle in the head and give it a several good raps on a solid workbench edge to seat the head on the handle as far as it will go.
At the point it stops, take a pencil and mark around the head. Put the head back in the vise between wooden jaws and drive out the handle with stick and hammer. Don’t file any more yet where you have just filed Use the rasp below the mark you made and remove about the same amount all around about another ½” to an 1” or so. Try the head on again and rap on the workbench as far as it will go this time. Pencil mark all around at this new location. Drive off again. At this point you will notice dark streaks or slick spots on the end you previously filed. Using the fine side of the rasp, take several strokes at these spots to remove, but no more. As you get close to the shoulder use the fine side of the rasp either the half round or the flat side. It may be easier at the shoulder to file across grain, but the head will cover all the rough marks anyway. Keep rasping and retrying the head until it touches the shoulder. It may only touch on two sides. Drive the head off a little and take the Swiss Pattern file and take a little shoulder off of the high sides, until all four seat together. Fitting the head to the handle is the most work involved in the whole procedure, so take your time to get a good fit. It’s a lot of work the first time you do it, but it gets easier the second time around.
A lot of flea market dealers carry wooden wedges. Try to pick out wedges that are only about ¼” or less wide at the top. Some wedges are about 3/8”, and they will stop driving in the slot before they get very far. These thinner wedges do a better job. After the hammer head is completely seated on the handle, most wooden wedges come wider than the eye in the top of the hammer head. The wedge slot in the handle once it is on the head is squeezed fairly tight. Take a small flat screwdriver and insert into the side of the handle slot to open it a bit. Insert the wedge, tapping down to top of the eye. With the wedge up against the pall end of the head, put a mark on the other end about 1/16” wider than the eye.
Mark a line the length of the wedge with a pencil and take a pocket knife or cutter and split off at the marked line. Save the little splinter, they are handy when you need just a small piece to fill a hole in the end of the handle.
Drive the wedge in as far as it will go with a wooden mallet. Just keep tapping it in until it feels like it would go any more. Don’t hit it so hard as to bust the wedge. Have the heel of the hammer handle on a hard wooden surface, like the workbench while driving in the wedge. Don’t use a metal surface such as the back side of a metal vise or you will run the risk of splitting the heel of the handle.
Cut the excess wedge and handle off nearly flush with the top of the head. One of the best ways I have found to cut this off is with a coping saw with fine tooth blade. The fine tooth scratches the hammer head very little.
File the stub of the wedge and handle flush with the fine flat side of the rasp. Don’t worry if the edges of the head are scratched a little by the rasp, that will be taken care of later.
Drive in the steel wedge in the middle, crossways of the wooden wedge. Make sure the heel of the handle is sitting on solid wood, not a metal surface.
This particular hammer head someone wanted to clean up to see the Belknap Bluegrass cloverleaf Logo, but very unwisely put it on a wire wheel. What I do in this case is to clean off the head with a good cleaner-degreaser and then apply instant gun blue to the bare area. The instant gun blue blends in very well with the surrounding old dark patina.
The scratches on the head, left from the rasp filing down the top of the handle, or any other spots that need touched up can be treated in the same manner using a Q-Tip to apply the gun blue. After all the touch up is done, buff the head with a soft paper towel such as the blue shop towels available at Wal-Mart and Sam’s Club. Finally apply several coats of Johnson’s Paste Wax to the head, buffing well between coats.
This is the finished Belknap hammer. Took about two hours, start to finish. You all have seen how the Fool puts a hammer head on in about 15 minutes, I don’t want him hammering next to me. All that’s left to do is to apply a good finish to the wooden handle. I will apply about three coats of Min Wax’s Wipe-On Ploy. This will finish to a beautiful hand rubbed look. If you buy a replacement handle from the hardware store, they usually come with a cheap clear coating of some sorts. Use paint stripper or scrape to get this stuff off and put on your own finish. The handle you choose can be finished natural or stained. I use Min Wax Wood Finish oil stains in English Chestnut and Provincial. These have a nice old tool look to them. Some Early American colors work well to. You just have to experiment and find what you like. I apply stain with a paper towel pad in long strokes, leaving most of the stain color on, wiping off very little. One more thought. Old replacement hammer handles used to come with the wedge slot uncut. If you can find any that way, I prefer the cut it with a hand saw cut diagonally. Cut it about ½” less than the depth of the head. When the wooden wedge is drove in, it makes I think a tighter fit in the head. Of course most handles found today have the slot already cut straight across. So you have to go with what you got. Bob Sturgeon,
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ature,
used to drive nails by caring carpenters on one hand to fools who use them
for beating on iron and concrete on the other. All kinds of hammers
can be found in excellent to badly abused condition.
