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Making Repairs to
Old Hammers - part 2
A lot of old hammers that are picked up are loose at the head. This is usually caused by the old wood shrinking over time. An easy repair is to take a flat Swiss Pattern file that is about 1/16” of an inch wide on its edge. File a groove about a 1/16” deep all around the bottom of the hammer head in the wood as above.
Hit the heel of the handle on a hard wooden surface to drive the head down onto the handle the 1/16” you cut away. If this tightens it up, fine. If it is still a little loose, cut another 1/16” groove and drive it down some more. Most likely the top of the handle will now protrude above the top of the head. Take a punch and drive the metal wedges down flush with the head. If the wooden handle end is sticking up, it can be made flush with the Shoe Rasp. Then touch up with gun blue.
If a small piece of wood has broken off and fallen out of the handle end, or you had to pull out an old nail leaving a hole, drive in a small split of a wedge, and cut off. If the hole is an irregular shape and there is still space around the wedge plug, mix up some saw dust and carpenters glue and fill in between. After the glue mixture is dry, take a paper towel and rub a corner of it on the dirty floor. Rub this into the patch and stain and it will blend right in.
Paint and paint spots on hammer handles are quite common. An easy way to remove them is to clean with a good cleaner and 0000 steel wool. I have used Kramer’s Best Antique Improver for years. It will remove the paint and spots, but will not harm any type of original finish. I will put a link to their site at the bottom of this article.
A common problem with hammer handles and wooden tools in general are dents in the wood. If the dent in only pushed in and the fibers of the wood are not broken an easy fix is to place a wet terry cloth towel over the dent and place a hot iron on top of the cloth. This causes steam to rise and in turn will raise the dent. One word of caution, it is best to obtain permission from the owner in order to use a tool of this magnitude.
If the finish on the old hammer is in bad shape, sometimes it is best to remove and refinish. You can use paint stripper on the old finish, but stripper is usually messy. An easier way it to scrape away with a sharp object. I prefer a sharp pocket knife, it’s easy to scrape with, but your favorite scraper is just fine. One word of caution, on some old hammer handles the maker sometimes will imprint their name or other words into the face side of original handles. Before you scrape off the old finish, always take a look and see if there is anything there. Had an old PEXTO hammer one time that I thought I would just jump right into, and then I noticed faintly the letters PEXTO in block letter vertically down the handle. Inspect first, jump second.
Here’s a common problem. A loose or crooked metal wedge. Take a punch or an old nail set and rock the wedge back and forth by tapping on each side until the wedge is loose enough to pull out with needle nose pliers. Once the wedge is out, place flat tooth picks, one or two on each side of the wedge hole. The tooth picks will tighten up the hole enough so that when the wedge is driven back in it will hold tight.
Another common repair is where someone tries to pull too big a nail with too small a hammer causing a nick on both insides of the claw. The metal is still there, it has just been displaced. Take a punch or an old nail set and tap and work the metal back into it’s original position. If there is still a small amount of hump on the back of the claws, dress this down with a flat file. Clean with degreaser and touch up with gun blue and a Q-Tip as described above. Another problem along this same line is a hammer head that has some mushrooming of the Pall head. You can grind most of this away and what is left can be filed flush. Then touch up with gun blue as above. If this is a collectible fine, but I wouldn’t make a user out of it or if the Pall has several chips out of it. I have never had it happen to me, but they say chipped heads can shatter. Why take a chance, too many good hammers still out there, if you want a good user. Link to Kramer’s Antique Improver. Can’t say enough good things about this product. Works wonders on both wood and metal. Bob Sturgeon,
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