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TIL you can forge a decent hatchet head from a single old ball peen hammer, so I tried it and made a paperweight instead
Last month I was cleaning out my grandpa's barn in Ohio and found a beat up ball peen hammer with a cracked handle, so I decided to forge it into a hatchet head. The two choices were the hammer or a rusty leaf spring from a 1972 Chevy truck, and I picked the hammer because the steel is already hard and I thought it would be easier. I spent about 4 hours at the forge drawing out the eye and stretching the face into a blade, and it looked great until I quenched it in oil and heard a loud ping. A crack ran straight through the eye, so now it sits on my bench as a reminder of my own ego. My neighbor Dave, who has been smithing for 30 years, laughed and asked if I normalized it before quenching, which of course I forgot to do. I'm going to try the leaf spring next weekend, but should I anneal it first or just work it hot the whole time?
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the_simon26d ago
Four hours of work and that ping sound is the worst, Dave's laugh probably stung more than the cracked eye.
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