The Sensuous Gadgeteer
(Page 9 of 11)
September/October 1973
By the Mother Earth News editors
BALL PEEN HAMMER
RELATED CONTENT
Peen is a verb that means to round a thing down by hammering on it. The ball peen hammer is for rounding down and shaping soft metals. The ball is the rounded end of the ball peen hammer.
Use the ball peen hammer for working copper, brass, lead, aluminum, silver, soft iron and sheet steel.
One of the virtues in a finished piece of metal work is its smooth surface, so when you buy a new ball peen hammer polish the hammering surfaces until you can see your face in them. Then they will not put marks in the work. Metal work with marks in it not only looks and feels cheap, but corrodes and wears quickly.
Polish the hammer surfaces by rubbing them on oiled emery cloth held in the palm of your hand or the tips of your fingers. Start with medium grade emery cloth, then fine grade, then finish the polishing with oiled crocus cloth, the finest emery cloth made. These are available at your local hardware store. When you use the abrasive cloth, rip off squares about 2"x2" and use these. You get the job done, and conserve sandpaper.
A good exercise in using the ball peen hammer is making rivets. While the ball peen hammer is used for all soft metal work, its full potential is fulfilled in the making of rivets.
The principle that the ball peen hammer works on is that metals, under sufficient pressure, will flow like clay. When the pressure is released, they become hard again. So when you are working metal with the hammer, imagine that you are pushing clay with the hammer. Strike the hammer firmly against the work and hold it against the work after is has struck. Do not let the hammer bounce off the work. That way you will take advantage of the clay-like qualitites of the metal.
Using a hacksaw, cut off a 1 " slug of iron from a medium sized nail and peen a rivet head into one end. Hold the slug vertical in a metalworking vise and leave about 3/16" protruding above the jaws. Beat on the iron with the hammer, straight down at first to swell the end, and then around and around to dome off the end of the rivet. If the rivet shaft becomes bent, straighten it by laying it on an anvil or piece of hard wood and pound down the high places. File off any slivers.
Be careful never to hit the anvil with the hammer. This will dent both and ruin both permanently.
If you buy a hammer head new, or if you have a hammer with a broken handle, you will want to replace the handle. Removing the old handle from the head is never easy. Some people burn it out with fire (this weakens the metal head) and some cut it out with a knife. Buy or make a hickory wood handle to fit the hammer head. The shaft of the handle should run parallel to the grain of the wood and the lines of the grain at the ends of the handle should run up and down—just like a baseball bat. The force of the hammer will flex the grain, not cut across it at right angles and break the handle. The handle must be smooth to prevent blisters. Fit the end of the handle snugly into the head, trimming the handle until it fits. Using a saw cut a thin split into the handle where the head fits. Commercial hammer handles come already split. Make a wooden wedge and drive this into the split. The wedge will cause the handle to swell and grip the head. You can buy metal wedges. Never use nails instead of wedges. For general tightening of a hammer head, strike the butt end, not the head end, against a wood block.
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