I recently came across a company that produced Lignum Vitae ("Tree of Life") forming hammers. Finally a hammer made from my favorite type of wood! Since I have been working on setting up a shop for Yvette to continue her love of metalsmithing, I decided that this would be a perfect addition to the collection.
First off I drilled a 5/8" hole in the center of my hammer head. Before going over to the lathe and turning this chunk into a cylinder I decided to rough out some hammer handles out of Maple, Hickory, and Walnut. Hickory is what hammers are typically made from as it has a tight, straight grain that gives the hammer strength, but I was curious to see how walnut and Maple stand up to the abuse.
Whenever I make anything now I always make in bulk because it saves time and gives me the option to sell or give away hammers to friends. It also gives me personal satisfaction.
Above you can see a quick hammer that I made comprised of a steel head, and rough turned walnut handle to give it a oval shape.
Back to the hickory handles. All the handles were roughly dimensioned on my Opa's old bandsaw and then hand filed to give them a curvaceous shape.
Ready for a final sanding, staining and hammer head!
I decided to take a break from the handles and move onto turning the hammer head now.
Lignum Vitae cuts extremely easy, and its no doubt that people make hammer heads out of the stuff! I mean, in industry it is typically used to make boat bearings because it naturally lubricates, is water resistant because of the natural oils, and is pretty dense. Not to mention that it smells really great when its cut as well.
Well, The hammer head is just about turned but it appears that I didn't take anymore photos to share, stay tuned for next time when I post pictures of the final product!
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