[R.A. Feuillerat]

Hello,

First post, so I hope I'm in the correct place for this question...

I would like to get a hammer similar to the Lutel 17016, I can't afford Lutel's at $500+ USD...

I figured I could make it my self, It doesn't have to be historically accurate to the last rivet but I would like a "battle ready" hammer and not something to hang on the wall.

Has anyone made or have advice on making warhammers?

Am I in the wrong area and need to go to the manufacturers area?

Thanks.

Robert

[Chad Arnow]

Robert,
Welcome to myArmoury.com. The correct place to ask for advice on constructing your own weapon is probably the Off-Topic Talk forum, where I've moved this.

The Makers and Manufacturers Talk forum is a place for professionals in the industry to advertise their wares and make announcements.

[R.A. Feuillerat]

[Chad Arnow]

[Christopher Finneman]

Hello there

Im not sure what it looks like on lutel cause my computer wont load the page.
But Ive had luck forging a railroad spike to a war hammer but tends to be a lil soft but still efficiant. Also another project Ive been working on it I bought a roofing hammer ( I beieve thats what they are called) and ground down the back to a nice 4 sided spike. Still in the works but its coming out nice. Also did a lil grinding on the hammer head .
Anyways thats my two cents

Christopher

[R.A. Feuillerat]

[Allan Senefelder]

Rock/masonary hammers, they can be forged and annealed, file decently in an annealed state, have enough material to draw out a spike and extend or reshape the head a bit and will retemper with a simple quench in water ( most rock/masonary hammers are W type water hardening steels from my expirience).

[Christopher Finneman]

Im not sure if they will be affected or not. I just picked up a few of these hamers to modifiy to my liking. I'll clue you in to what I find out/ The design is there for a warhammer just need to get the basics down and Ill clue you all in.

[Brian Johnson]

As long as the head doesn't get really hot during grinding (600+ degrees farenheit) it should remain plenty hard. A good way to make sure you don't overtemper while grinding is to do it barehanded. An even better way would be to forge the rough shape, grind, and then heat treat to your desired hardness. As Mr. Senefelder said, hammers are typically made of simple steels like W-series or 10xx series. These steels are pretty easy to heat treat. If you don't have a forge, you could probably make due with an acetylene torch. I wouldn't recommend using a torch to heat treat a blade, but a hammer has enough mass that you should be able adequately control the temperature. If you intend to forge the head, only strike the steel when it is in the bright red to orange range (1500-1800 degrees). When the steel cools to a dull red, it must be re-heated to resume forging. After you are done forging, heat the steel to cherry red (1450 to 1500ish) and cool as slowly as possible. Immediately placing it in a container full of vermiculite or even wood ash and leaving until cool will anneal the steel enough to make it relatively easy to grind. After you are done grinding, heat the head back to cherry red. As soon as the steel reaches the appropriate temperature, quench in oil or water. After the quench, the steel will need to be tempered immediately. W-series and 10xx series steels get extremely hard and require a relatively high temper for use as a hammer. You could either put it in your oven on the highest bake setting for an hour, or you could temper with the torch. Depending on the alloy, the highest setting on the oven may not be hot enough for an adequate hammer type temper. If you decide to temper with the torch, you will need to remove the oxidation left on the surface of the steel from the quench so that you can monitor the temperature by observing the color change on the surface of the steel. Begin heating the head with a small flame. Keep the flame moving so as to keep the heat even. The steel will progressively change color from yellow to brown to magenta to dark blue. Stop when you get the whole head to oxidize to a magenta or blue color. If the surface turns very light blue or gray, you have gotten to hot. It may take you a few tries to get the whole process right.

Also....forging and hardening are best done in a dark room. Excess lighting will make it extremely hard to accurately judge temperature