I wasn't planning on making this video but just as I was about to start modifying this cheap hammer I thought it could be helpful to somebody else so I decided to throw it in as a quick video I need a cross peen hammer as it's a pretty essential item for blacksmithing my next project requires one and without ordering one online they don't seem to be the easiest thing to find locally so I've decided to grind this cheap sledgehammer into a cross peen it's the hammer that I've been using for all my blacksmithing up until now I'm cooling it between every pass so it doesn't ruin the harden faces it never gets too hot to handle so I reckon it'd be fine with no worries I thought about cutting most of the waste off with an angle grinder but that would definitely have gotten too hot with no real good way of keeping it cool I've just stopped for a second to show you
the progress it's gone very easy I just need to keep shaping the front into a
peen and that shouldn't take too long at all I do plan on attempting to forge a
hammer at some point I've got all the materials needed to make the hammer and the required tools like a punch, a drift and hammer tongs and I may even make that into a short series of videos don't worry that isn't the handle I wedged a stick in there just to check the balance and it's not too bad but I am going to grind some off this face here just to try and even it up a bit I'm also gonna start rounding off some of these corners and shaping it a bit more it started off as a four pound hammer so there's plenty of meat to play with because I don't need it to be anywhere near that heavy it's starting to get there I very slightly tapered the sides and then put the facets in they need rounding over now with the slack belt but before I do that these corners on the back I'm going to try and grind them to match these corners on the front I don't want it to be all shiny so I'm going to dull it down by soaking it in vinegar for an hour or so but before I do that I'll clean it with acetone to try and prevent it from rusting I'm heating it a little then applying some beeswax polish I'm using a piece of spotted gum for the handle it's a very strong hardwood and it's got a pretty straight grain a rookie error there the tenons not long enough but fortunately it's easy to fix I realize like to shape the handle on
the belt grinder but I really enjoy using the saw rasp and it takes no time at all to shape a handle like this also I'll mention this wood is very dense and although a spokeshave is an option it really does struggle with it for the finish I'm using boiled linseed oil and I thought it better test it out on a piece of hot steel that's going to be a pretty useful hammer hopefully the video is useful to somebody hopefully you enjoyed it if you did please like and subscribe thanks for watching and I'll see you on the next one
