My Most Useful Hammer....and Memories

[davec2]

Many many years ago now I made this brass bodied, nylon faced hammer for my Dad.  He used it for all sorts of things, but mostly for forming gold and silver.  When he passed away in 2018, the hammer came back to me.  I have made many such hammers....some with all brass heads, some with steel heads, some with the nylon faces...various sizes... and, as you can see in the photos, some very small.  (The smallest ones were for my two daughters when they were very tiny themselves.)  Each time I pick up my Dad's hammer, it brings back a flood of very happy memories of he and I working together and of me watching his very skilled hands make wonderful things...or of my tiny daughters pounding happily on the bench top beside me, chattering like magpies and "helping" me work......

Time, Tide, and Formation wait for no man.......

[ed lundquist]

Those little hammers gave me a wide smile! Thanks.

[Daryl]

Absolutely, Ed.

Touching story, Dave C, but those little hammers sold it.

[smart dog]

Hi Dave,
I love that story.  It brought a few tears to my eyes, Dave because I was close to and greatly respected my father too.   The picture below is of my marking gauge.  It is a humble tool but it was my great, great, great grandfather's, a man who built the first homes known as "Brooklyn Brownstones".  It was passed down in our family to me through my dad. 


My dad had me use it at a very young age to file an irregular block of wood into a rectangle, then into a perfect square, and then into a perfect sphere.  I used the gauge to measure the sides and keep them true.  It was my right of passage to work in his shop.  He taught me the way he was taught by his father and at Brooklyn Technical High School during the Depression.  I later modified this wonderful, venerable tool to include a scratch stock function. It is the tool I use to lay out ramrod channel moldings and the only tool I need to do so.  Some of the first things I made in Pop's shop were arrows.  Dad and I used the motor and parts from an "Erector Set" to build a little mini-lathe to spin the arrows so we could crest them with paint.  My first artistic endeavor was designing arrow crests and I was only 10.

Thanks for sharing.

dave
 

[smylee grouch]

Great story DaveC. A lot of workmen have tools handed down that they have very fond memories of and one of mine was a spoke shave my father gave me. Still use it when needed but it just AINT as cute as those little hammers .   

[john bohan]

I have some tools that my Dad used for violin making. I have no use for them but just won't get rid of them.

[jerrywh]

Anything that was dads is a jewel forever for those who are fortunate to have had a good dad.  My favorite hammer is a copper one. I love it because I can hit stuff real hard without denting it, like thin barrels.  Dave Crisalli is a true genius when it comes to making stuff. Just having something he made is nice.
 I wish I had a pair of brass pliers or brass-jawed pliers.

[greybeard]

Many many years ago now I made this brass bodied, nylon faced hammer for my Dad.  He used it for all sorts of things, but mostly for forming gold and silver.  When he passed away in 2018, the hammer came back to me.  I have made many such hammers....some with all brass heads, some with steel heads, some with the nylon faces...various sizes... and, as you can see in the photos, some very small.  (The smallest ones were for my two daughters when they were very tiny themselves.)  Each time I pick up my Dad's hammer, it brings back a flood of very happy memories of he and I working together and of me watching his very skilled hands make wonderful things...or of my tiny daughters pounding happily on the bench top beside me, chattering like magpies and "helping" me work......

Time, Tide, and Formation wait for no man.......and very few women.

[Tim Crosby]

 Those are Really neat and the story as well. There have been times that I'm sure my Left thumb wished I'd had one of the small ones in the Right

   Tim

[borderdogs]

Hi Guys,
Here is a hammer I made when I was in high school when I worked in my dads machine shop during the summer. Its small and I made the head from an octagonal piece of brass rod the handle is a piece maple. Its the second handle I made for it the first one I made was too thin so I made a second handle widened it up where you hold it and tapered it to fit the hole in the head. I made it on my spare time from scrap and when my dad saw it he liked it so much he took it. When I asked about it he said make another for yourself. I never did.
Rob