Popular Woodworking 2006-02 № 153, страница 18

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Q & A

Details and Materials For Making Hammers

Is Brass a Good Material for Making Your Own Hammers?

I've read and watched with interest as your magazine continues to explore the once-abandoned frontier of hand tools. Of particular interest to me right now is the hammer - that old-fashioned, oft-ignored and overly abused tool that has been around forever.

Since seeing and admiring the Glen-Drake Tite-Hammer that you wrote about (Tool Test, June 2005, issue #148), I sketched some designs and am making my own versions of a chisel hammer. In the past few weeks, I've found that brass is easy and quite fun to work with. I haven't used my 3" x 21" belt sander in years and was about to purchase one of those 1"-wide belt sanders to do some woodworking and metalworking when I came up with an idea. I took some scrap wood and a few hours of thought, and converted my Porter-Cable belt sander into something more stationary that can be used for shaping metal, wood, etc. The belt runs vertically and I have an adj acent work surface that can be tilted when the need arises. It even has dust collection.

But back to my original topic, hammers. I was on the verge of buying a Warrington-pattern hammer when I decided to make one myself out of the extra bras s I now have lying around. Hammers have a new-found place of honor in my shop - alongside my dovetail saw and hand planes.

Dave Brown Washington, DC

My personal hammer collection is completely out of hand. I'm up to 20. All are being used (I swear it), and I'm learning loads about the Warrington cross pane and its proper orientation to the work. Warringtons are nice because the pane (we sometimes call it the "peen" in North America) is useful for starting small brads between the fingers . It allows you to hold the brad and strike the

1. The cross pane allows you to start small brads without striking your fingers.

2. Once the brad is seated in the work, turn the hammer around and drive it home with the face.

nail without striking your finger. There are other English patterns with a cross pane, including the Lancashire and London patterns.

I'll be curious as to how your Warrington hammer performs. I'd be worried that the brass wouldn't do well when struck on nails or other harder metals. Although a brass hammer should be fine for striking a plastic or wooden chisel handle, my brass hammers get beat up just from the hoops on my Japanese chisels.

You might want to try making a Warrington hammer from an old ripping hammer—the ripping hammers have a straighter claw, which might give you some meat to make the cross pane.

— Christopher Schwarz, editor

What Happened to QuickCAD?

I have recently been able to buy a computer for my personal use and want to purchase a furniture-design program to use to make illus-continued on page 18

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Popular Woodworking February 2006