Hand engraved hammer

Jan Hendrik · Nov 27, 2014

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This was an older project that I only finished now. Due to time constraints I needed to have a display item for my table at a knife show here in South Africa and decided to finish this old project. There are some elements to the design that I would definitely do differently with my current design skills. I started with a standard ball peen hammer from the hardware store. Filing, sanding and polishing the hammer to a mirror polish took nearly 7 hours! The whole project took roughly 40 hours to complete. The steel was quite gummy and very hard. Kept chipping my flat graver points during the background removal and re-sharpened carbald gravers more times than I care to remember. Give me stainless steel to cut anytime! The handle is Chakate hardwood with a lovely warm glow and a silky smooth finish.

monk · Nov 27, 2014

beautiful job. if this was just for display, you could have saved a lot of trouble by annealing the piece prior to engraving. but then you gained expertize in the sharpening arena.

Marrinan · Nov 27, 2014

I really like your design on this project. Hammers are a pain if you don't anneal them. I have done several hammers, Horse hammers, claw ha hammer, ball peen, a couple of fire axes and a hatchet or two. Never even attempted with annealing first. One of the horseshoe hammers had to be re-hardened as it was going to be used as intended. Yours is sure shiny. You did a great job on photo with that kind of surface. How did you accomplish that? Thanks for sharing, Fred

Jan Hendrik · Nov 27, 2014

Marrinan said:
I really like your design on this project. Hammers are a pain if you don't anneal them. I have done several hammers, Horse hammers, claw ha hammer, ball peen, a couple of fire axes and a hatchet or two. Never even attempted with annealing first. One of the horseshoe hammers had to be re-hardened as it was going to be used as intended. Yours is sure shiny. You did a great job on photo with that kind of surface. How did you accomplish that? Thanks for sharing, Fred

Thank you Fred! For me the key in photographing very shiny surfaces is to use indirect light as much as possible to eliminate excessive glare. A tripod also helps to eliminate the shakes we all have that leave you with blurry images.

Willem Parel · Nov 28, 2014

Very beautiful Jan Hendrik.

don hicks · Nov 28, 2014

Another example of taking something mundane and turning it into something beautiful. Thanks for posting it.
Cheers
Don

Dirtdigger · Nov 28, 2014

Never thought that hammer could look this good!
As beginner i would love to make even half as nice work someday! Thank you for showing it to us!

Jan Hendrik · Nov 28, 2014

Thank you for all the kind comments! The hammer was a big hit the first day at the knife show. Especially amongst the other exhibitors. I also won first place in the novice category Fixed art blade with the first knife I ever made. I will start a new thread with the knife soon!

Willem Parel · Nov 29, 2014

Very good, congrats to that. :thumbsup:

Hand engraved hammer

Jan Hendrik

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