Hand Tool Build

Brasshead Inline Hammer

This will be a hammer meant to be used by gravity as a Tippy Tapper in the shop vernacular.

I plan to hold this hammer in an in-line manner with the index finger down the head. Since it has a hexagonal head, I have dubbed this model the TT6-ii. The ii is for "index-inline".

Metal Work

Handle

Finish


Metal Work

 

There was a Reese's Piece of old hexagonal brass stock, Mr. Reese had apparently wanted it for some kind of handle and he had threaded the stock at 3/8-16.


This head is three inches long...7/8 inches thick...end profile.
I cleaned up the six sides on the DMT lapping plate.
Squared up the end a bit...
Working the Handle
First couple of attempts, I tried a brass insert...this would be sunk into the handle and the 3/8-16 threaded shaft would work into the insert. But in attempting to screw in the insert, the brass edging broke...two times.
So I decided to tap the shaft, bought a 3/8-16 tap

I found a piece of black walnut in the scrap bin.

Drilled a hole of 5/16 and tapped the hole...

Dryfit the handle...nice...

Laid out the rough outline of the handle I wanted to try...
Removed material with bandsaw, scroll saw, and spokeshave...then moved to 80x sanding with the Rigid oscillating belt... continued removing material with 80x on Rotex 90.
Finish

I used some rasps for final shaping and then to finish, I used Rotex 90 with 220x and softened all surfaces, walnut and metal. I then doused all metal and wood with a heavy coat of Howard Feed N Wax and then hand sanded the surfaces dry with 320x sandpaper.

The short, shaped handle feels good in the palm of the hand...
The index finger runs down a facet of the hex head and allows for very precise tapping.
In use...

 

 

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