6 lb hammer | "Traditional" Blacksmithing | Forum

A year ago I had my right shoulder joint replaced.  I was afraid that my hammer days were numbered.  I built a power hammer but you cannot do everything with it.  I have been making cutting implements from coil and leaf springs and everyone knows how well that moves under a hammer.  The I went to bearing races and balls.  Tough stuff.

The shuttle valve on the hammer gave up, so back to the hand hammer for rough stuff.

As I was blazing away with my trusty 4 lb cross peen and getting nowhere I noticed my old 6 lb double jack against the wall collecting dust.  As the metal heated I cut the handle down and reshaped it to fit my meat hooks.

Now we are talking about moving some metal.  Once I get the work down to 1/2 in then back to the 4 lb, but I learned some things.

Strike hard not fast. Choke up on the handle. Use the shoulder not the wrist.  The metal stays hot longer.  Don't use the big hammer on 1/4 stock.

Does the shoulder hurt? yes, but not too bad.  laid off one day and then back at it.  Got a lot done and happy to be using a hammer of any size.

So when the metal just won't move, get a bigger hammer.