Hawken Hammer

[Whaleman]

I have been following Taylor's Hawken thread. His hammer hits perfect on the nipple. Mine does not. I have tried to bend it to get it perfect but I don't seem to have a method that works. I have tried to hold in a vice.  What is the secret? While I am sure it would work fine I would prefer it to be centered. Thanks, Dan

[rogerpjr]

I'm not sure if I'm going to explain this clearly enough, but here's how I did it.  If you are just trying to bend it so the top of the hammer tilts outward more, just clamp the bottom circular area in a bench vise and use a large crescent wrench (I used a 12" one) held vertically over the top of the hammer and tweak it a little at a time till you get what you want. I did this cold bending it. If you want to change the angle where the nose hits front to rear you will have to heat the hammer bright red at the top of the vertical section or on the top section of the rounded part of the hammer and then bend the top section whichever way you need. I had to lift up on the front of mine just a tiny bit. I couldn't get it hot enough with even a Mapp gas torch so I had to resort to my little oxy-acetylene setup since the hose to my propane forge was broken. Don't know if this helps any or not.

[D. Taylor Sapergia]

Dan, I think you are beating yourself up for nothing.  Your hammer comes down on the nipple squarely but a little forward of where you'd ideally like it.  If you bend the hammer to make it strike centrally, the cup will be out of square a bit, and strike the nipple high on the front edge.  You are far better off to leave it alone.

I'd split the nose of the hammer cut though..it'll allow the cap to fall free from the hammer cup much more easily.  Use a hack saw to make the slit, and then a safe sided three square file to round the bottom edges of the slit.  Cut right down to the cup's 'floor' with the saw.

[Bob Roller]

Install a sacrificial steel nipple and snap the lock (dry fire) it 75 or 100 times. These hammers are usually cast from a fairly malleable material and will develop a wear pattern that will square the strike when a new nipple is installed.

Bob Roller

[Whaleman]

I had to order some stuff from TOW so I ordered another hammer ($14.50) to practice the bending. rogerpjr explained that heat was needed for bending up and down. Since I had such a small amount I tried cold. It snapped at the top. There was a 1/16" hole or void in the middle of the break and the break was very crystaline. Roger said he could not get it hot enough with a mapp gas torch. How did he know? If hot enough should it bend real easy? Thanks Dan

[FALout]

I've always heated to red for bending.  It can sometimes be a pain heating, bending, allow to cool, fit it and the have to repeat again, and again, and again.  The last one, I took an end mill bit, chucked in a hand drill and reamed it till the hammer hit square on the nipple.

[rogerpjr]

How did I know it wasn't hot enough? I have been doing hobby blacksmithing for more than 20 years. You need to get the steel a bright cherry red so it will bend like it was plastic. The upper part of the hammer has enough mass that the Mapp torch just wouldn't get it hot enough with it also being held in the bench vise which draws away some of the heat too. As soon as I hit it with the hotter oxy-acetylene flame it heated right up and easily bent.

[Whaleman]

Thanks Roger