> >I've had two hammers - one walnut, the other a reddish brown wood, maybe >cocabolo - that split because the shaft was too short and too thick - >approx. 5/8" turned down to 7/16" at the head. > >A machinist friend of mine made me a 10" model with a long 7/16" >stainless steel shaft, a HD brass ferrule, and a dogwood handle. Light >weight and rigid. You're right about the lighter wood showing dirt. I >chucked the headless lever in the drill press, sanded off the dirt and >finish, and appied a few coats of varnish. > >Carl Root, RPT >Rockville, MD > I made a shop hammer, close to twenty years ago, out of scrap plugs of that old nasty rotary cut pinblock material stacked on a 7/16" shaft, water hard drill rod, if memory serves (??). The ferrule is salvaged from a cheap hammer someone gave me that I cheerfully killed to get it out of circulation, and I finished the handle with a very thin epoxy. It's thoroughly ugly, with definite character, but the handle still looks clean, and I still use it for stringing and shop tuning. I have found through the years that you develop an appreciation (or disdain) for manufactured products when you attempt to make something for yourself instead of buying it. You also develop skills and tricks that can get you places you otherwise couldn't go when you have to come up with a fix for something nobody has ever heard of before. Never mind whether or not you *want* to be stuck with fixing something nobody ever heard of before, you have a better chance of surviving those killer projects you weren't smart enough to avoid if you have an experience backlog of inventing wheels. In other words, you learn. My projects have gotten considerably more expensive and complicated since then, but the principal still applies. Caveat: The illusion of invincibility resulting from having survived past projects of this sort, or worse, is just that... an illusion. Proceed with caution and humility. Be prepared for setbacks, but don't accept failure, and never decline to proceed. If you aren't in over your head once in a while, you aren't learning. That's a generic, general purpose aphorism with which y'all may go forth and annoy others. No charge. I'm going to bed now. Been in the shop all day, and have wounds to lick (and the flu). But I'm gaining. So's the flu. Sigh. Ron
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