Forge your own HAMMER - Blacksmithing 

Advice from a 38 year machinist; if your drill is long enough to go through the stock, back the drill out as many times as necessary to keep the chips clear so they wont bind and break your drill. NEVER try to make holes meet from opposite sides if you can help it. The likelihood of breaking the bit is too high; if the location of the holes is off even a little bit--a hair thickness--as you break through, you will over feed and the drill will grab just as it did here. In many cases a substantial portion of the bit will bind and break off inside the piece, and be next to impossible to drive out. That being said, I have watched dozens of these videos and find them very informative and entertaining. your skill level is very obvious. Thanks for all you reveal!

I am an amateur blacksmith going on nearly 40 years. I have a close friend who is about equally experienced. We thoroughly enjoy watching one of your videos after supper...and learn quite a bit too.

This brother's forearms are so meaty he just lays em on the table, respect lol

A little drill press tip when you chuck a drill bit tighten all three jaws they will hold the bit better and when you take the bit out you will find it easier with just one jaw. Tip of the day Len

Just got roof on new shop, well new to me. Nice to be able to watch these vids over again. I can hardly wait to build my forge.. right now the tractor has a new bedroom lol thanks for all the Great info😇

Thank You ... Happy New Year 2024 ...

You make it look so easy Sir, that's what experts do. Your such an inspiration to us just starting out. I always said Experts make it look easy.

Liked, subscribed and I hit the bell icon. You are very quickly becoming one of my favourite smithing channels. Really informative and well made. Please keep up the great work.

Thank you for sharing your knowledge with us .

You did a grate job giving us a lot of hints and what to expect.

Your videos are so awesome

Thank you John I know I have healed some better so I watch you good videos

I enjoy watching your work I'm a beginner at blacksmithing and you sir are a inspiration. I am a stone mason by trade and look forward to making my own hammers and chisels

Excellent!

John, I heard about you from Wood By Wright. I watched your holdfast video and they are BEAUTIFUL! This hammer video made me appreciate your craft more. I want to find the next one, to see how it finishes. Thank you for making these videos!

Great information. Thank you John.

Poštovani majstore velik pozdrav vama i vašoj cijenjenom radijonici iz koje odjekuje zvuk nakovnja i čekića što me podsjeća na mog ujaka koji je isto bijo kovač, i koji je preminuo 2000 godine, u svojoj 78 godini života. Da sam bliže vas rado bih vam pomogao. Zanima me samo što je to u toj kanti u koju ste zatrpali čekić poslije kovanja. Hvala vam unaprijed na vašem povoljnom odgovoru, i želim vam puno sreće i uspjeha u vašem radu. Petar.

Great videos I’m trying to get caught up!!!👍

If I may suggest an alternate technique I learned from an old blacksmithing book. After drilling the two beginning holes as you did insert a low carbon steel bar in each one and then drill the center. The bars will keep your center hole from drifting to either side. I think you will appreciate the speed of forming the handle hole this way.

Great video John. Thanks for your time and effort. What weight is the Cross Peen you are using? (Not forging, using.)

I love the way you explain the processes and the reasons behind the processes, as opposed to a lot of other channels out there that only show the process itself. Thank you kindly and keep up the great work.

Safe to say that the process for a straight peen hammer is the same but turn the peen 90°?

What you do with the "cold shut" is incredibly simple but not thought about on 1st attempts, i forged a 3kg sledge into a splitting axe head and ran into the cold shut problem. Had know idea how to get around it. After watching this, im face palming right now over something so obvious. Thanks so much for your knowledge!!💪

Could I make a hammer out of rebar? Maybe weld pieces together them work it into shape?

My son and I just started blacksmithing last winter and we are total novices. What kind of steel would you recommend for us to make are first punch and drift out of? Great job on your videos you are a true professional. Oops sorry never mind I just watched your punch and drift series and that answered my question. Great job on those videos as well. 👍

Thanks for sharing your knowledge and experience. God bless, and be safe.

Wish I’d have watched this before my first hammer... made my punch wrong and didn’t pre drill. That hammer came out pretty special, so special I named it Ed. (Pun intended). Thanks for the good instruction!

Awesome Video! You have been SUBSCRIBED, Pal!

Hi John, I real enjoy your videos and find the content useful for the blacksmith.

I actually practiced the basics when I first started so by the time I made my first hammer I was fairly good at punching and drifting first hammer I made actually turned out to be 5 pounds lol so makeing 1 to 2 pound hammers should feel easy now Haha but use the 5 pounder as my main now love it but would love a little smaller cross peen

I am considering making my first hammer but making it out of mild steel (CRS) instead of tool steel. That way, if I totally mess it up, I'm not out a lot. Any thoughts or suggestions? Also, assuming the hammer turns out sorta OK, would it be worthwhile to case harden it using a carburizing product such as Casenite or Cherry Red?

Like to learn

So it have been lurking and learning a bunch from your videos. My question is what type of tongs are you using to move that mass of steel? Could you make a video explaining the tongs and their uses? Thanks and keep up the good work.

Good stuff! I know you hear it... alot! But thank you. I wouldn't be near where I'm at without these videos. And I'm still very early in my journey. A question if you don't mind. What would you recommend first, a tredel hammer or a fly press? I know the jist with the pros and cons between the two. Different tools, similar but different applications. Currently I make alot of smaller projects I don't mind knocking out by hand. Skulls, leaves, aliens, hooks of all too. But I really want to get more into tool making. I have what I need for now, made at the anvil. A couple hardy cutters, a hardy pillar(flat top), a spring fuller, bending jig, punch/chisel set ect. But I want to get into more with hammer/axe/handled tools. Today I got a little over my head with an axe I'm working on. First I really used the wrong material for the shape I want. (Car axel) but I got it squared off, hole punched and now I'm spreading... the long part lol. I don't mind learning and doing it that way for some of em, but for future productivity I'd like some help. Tredel or press... oh the choices lol! Hope my rant isn't too bad, and thanks again. see ya next video!

Perhaps I have not seen it yet but are your drifts made out of tool steel or like your hammer 4140?? which I see a lot of used axles would work for this application? What does the vermiculite do? rather than dipping it in oil first?

Hi John. Love what you do. I have a question I've made a couple of hammers now and I've had to try and sort out a crooked eye. My question is aside from a hour or so with a file how would one sort that out... other than to not punch a crooked eye

Love the hammer making videos. I would love to see you make a hammer from wrought iron with forge welded hard faces. Finished with an etch to show the wroughts wood like grain.

Subbed and liked, Thanks I'm really Learning a lot from your channel . I've been interested in Blacksmithing for years , but it's taken me 20 years to find and afford my first anvil :) which I found at the local country markets last weekend . :) So I'm a beginner , and your a Good Teacher :) . I look forward to seeing more of your instruction videos . I don't have a fancy forge yet , so I'm starting with a hairdryer and a few bricks and some bbq coals :) , any advice on old school bellows and coals methods would be great ! :) Thanks from Australia !

Youre Brilliant John. I often think I was born 100 years too late as I would loved to have lived in the era of true craftsmanship. I did my bit tho

John, what's your average start to finish time on forging a hammer?

Goodmorning sir, thank you for the videos. You are a joy to watch! Would you mind sharing they type of camera you are using. Seems to work very well . I'm currently using gopro but, they leave a little to be desired Thanks again.

Wooooh! This ones a classic!

Watching blade smiths is fantastic but if you want to learn, watching blacksmithing is where the knowledge is to be had for beginners.

Some thick glasses. Love your videos.. they are somewhat relaxing

You could also use the drift to hold the hammer head. Course you already knew that!! Hahaha I would be proud to own one of your hammers!!!🙏🏻

Excellent work. Super instructions. Awesome Thank you for sharing.

I really like the diagonal peen hammer I have seen you use sometimes, would it be feasible to make one out of a hardware store hammer ? Start with a small sledge, or maybe a crosspeen and try to twist it ?

If uneven head weight when placing the handle is important (and I agree)...what good is a dog head hammer???

I got a hold of some old fork truck forks that I want to cut up and make hardy tools and hammers. Thanks for sharing John!!!

What about wide tapered slotting on end of punch for a scalloped edge would the narrower buts cause less resistance and aide in speed and less fatigue and clean up with the drift or would it just be more contact surface and make it harder

why punch eye before forming striking end? wouldnt it be easier to rough out ends and then punch hammer eye?

Great video !!!! basic enough for the regular Joe to understand. I've also seen Smith's form cheeks at the handle hole. is that something you care to shed some light on ???? again Thank you for your time to demonstrate Blacksmithing.

Hi John Have you ever made a hammer by using the faggoting technique?

Never Seize is as good a punch lubricant as you can get.

i like it when he says peen

What drill bit do you have in that press? The chips were amazing and the speed through 4140... I feel like it would have taken me three times as long to drill those holes.

I like how he used a cross peen hammer to make a cross peen hammer P.s good vid man very informative

I use a hammer eye punch and I don’t drill any holes but I can punch a hammer billet much faster than with a drilled hole. But it’s easier to have a not straight hole so I’d recommend this for beginners

Next amateur video to go with the tongs video: "How to forge a hammer without a hammer" 👀🤔 😂🤣 I really enjoy your videos; you thoroughly explain everything while simultaneously advising of what to watch out for, & I greatly appreciate that. 😁👍

John, why not drill the 3rd hole beween the first two? Is it because you would be fighting the bit, the whole way, or omething else?? Since I have never made a hammer, it would seem less trouble to have the 3 holes and not have as much metal to move with the punch! I have been a Blacksmith, making Rendezvous-type items like camp fire sets, S hooks, the occasional knife and things like that, for many years! However, I became disabled with a rare disease, about 20 years ago! It eats all the cartilage from all the joints and then erodes the ends of the bones! So, with that problem, I can't do much heavy work without hurting my joints! That is why I'm asking. Thanks in advance for your answer! I really learn so much from your videos! Having been a teacher, I can honestly say that you are an excellent instructor! Best wishes to you, always!

I have a question. I'm not a blacksmith; but I like making knives and tomahawks. I found a cross pean hammer at a yard sell, it has a tapered hole on the cross pean end. Just wondering what that was for.

I am not likely to get a power hammer due to a lack of space. Also I don’t intend on making large hammers, just maybe top tools or small hammers. So showing how it is done the old fashioned way is best for me. Be going to the CBA conference soon in Petaluma. I will hang out with the beginners. Hope to try my hand at punching and maybe drifting.

Thanks for sharing I would do anything to spend time in the shop with you but for now I’ll settle for the videos thanks much

I am curious with all those metail shavings, wouldn't it be a good idea to collect them with a magnet and safety store them and then when you have enough recycle it and create a iron ingot? I see alot of metal shavings come off hot metal when you hit it, so I feel like all those shavings can be recycled. Am I wrong?

I just forged my first hammer and I think it came out well just a basic soft face hammer. I didn’t drill the holes I just center punched it and I got a straight hole

What is the difference between a punch and a drift?

Excellent video! I noticed that your tongs had Ball-ends on the reigns. How is that forged?

Whitaker. Excellent last name. Would recommend. My family liked it so much we doubled up on the T. This is an excellent video, and it’s nice to see how much these have improved over the years.

Very good John I am going to try to do my small ball peen tomorrow thank you I will send a picture on fb page to share it.

Much appreciated John- Great tutorial

Hey John! What are the dimensions of the hammer drift and what type of steel should I use please?

I've looked all over for how to make a bell hammer. Any advice?

Very helpful

So i know this is quite an old video so i dont expect a reply... But do you quench your tongs during this process? Im very new to Blacksmithing and find my tongs overheat... So i assume i just working too much with the same tongs or theyre too thin... Or its semi nornal and people quench their tongs? I just didnt see you do it in the video. Only quenching the drift and punch. Please and thanks if anyone does reply

This cat knows what is what... If you want to learn the craft, watch his vids

drill, drill, drill skreech!! sounds familiar to me.

I'm sure this is a dumb question. What is the blue stuff for?

John, what type of steel are you using for your punch/drift ? Are they made of 4140 as well? If not will 4140 make good tooling? I ask because I have a forklift fork that is I think 4140 but I am not exactly sure on the composition for sure. Thank you in advance, Martin M&S Blades

John do you have a video to access coving reforging a hammer? I have a 2kg lump hammer (aka Gympie) that I would like to reforge to a 3lb cross peen hammer similar to your favoured cross peen hammer. Cheers........👌

Thanks for the little coal dust tip, I'll try that.

Can I re forge a hammer that is peaning over ?

Do you do anything with the small bits like the one you punched out of the middle of the hammer you made?

Great JOB John...... Very informative....

Great content thanks. How come those dykem bottles always leak like that?? Had one get sideways in my tool cabinet and made a big freaking mess ......Ha

Where do you buy your 4140

Two questions: 1. Do you ever sale a hammer? 2. Where can I buy 1 1/2" 4140?

Can older hammers be reshaped to form a cross or straight pein hammer!

Good idea John thank you

HI John

Nice 👍

By chance do you ever make peening hammers for sale ? Im trying to find one at a reasonable price just trying to get into black Smithing. Thankyou for your video's and the time you take to make them takecare my friend.

What do you use for punch lube

Great demo .

When your drill bit jams up like that it is from lack of oil, that is why machinist have a constant stream of oil running over the bit.