[Eric Meulemans]

A War hammer for under $40 you say? Well, there is one, and here it is:
http://www.budkww.com/partsview.asp?action=lo...p;catpos=0

As my knowledge on warhammers is less than comprehensive, I'd be interested to hear opinions on the following:

1. How closely does it come to correct form/size/appearance, or does it? If so, for what region/period?
2. Do you believe it to be a copy (however crude) of a particular piece?
3. Are there any examples of the sort of incised decoration in the centre of the head on period pieces?

I think there will be no disagreement on the questionable quality of materials or doubt as to the practicalities of its use, however, for the sake of discussion:

4. How durable do you think it actually is, as is?
5. How durable do you think it could be made (including possible hardening/tempering of head, haft replacement, etc.)?
6. Is it worth $40 to find out?

Ultimately, I think it would be a fun piece to abuse or use as a project, but I am interested to know if (perhaps with some touchup) it would ever make a passably "correct" warhammer for display/renactment. Obviously, if anyone has one themselves, their input would be appreciated as well.

-Eric

[Allan Senefelder]

Eric, the guy that does our ringmaille stuff got one of these as a "Christmas present". In the state it will show up at your house its strickly a decorator piece. The head and the butt cap were lose on the shaft although the langets were firmly in place. The shaft did appear to be hardwood. It was very end heavy and made speedy recovery difficult. The shaft does not pass all the way through the head and cannot as one end is capped but rather is held in place by a nail that allows the head to rock a little bit. If you wanted to make a project piece out of it you could(assuming the head is cast steel which it seemed to be) with alot of labor mostly to reduce the weight of the head and make the shaft pass through it so it can be wedge fit into place. At $40.00 its about where it should be for the decorator price range and if your into some do it yourself the price is certainly right.

[Lloyd Clark]

Check Ebay first. I saw the same hammers on there last week going for $19.99 (unfortunately, I didn't jump on that one).

http://search.ebay.com/war-hammer_Collectible...1QQsacatZ1

I believe that this is the same hammer: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem...1&rd=1 as the BudK one.

I am going to pick one up for a work piece. As long as the head is solid, I can fix the rest.

[Bill Grandy]

What does "cast metal plated and carbon steel tip" mean? Metal plated with what? Chrome?

[Allan Senefelder]

The one Keith's got seems to be chromed but I can't of course be sure.

[Lloyd Clark]

[Allan Senefelder]

Lloyd,i've been able to remove chrome plating with a sound wire bristeling (sp) without to much effort before. Might be worth trying.

[David R. Glier]

Use ammonia water to kill chrome. It comes off like nobody's buisness -almost as fast as galvanizing comes off in acid.


I work with refrigeration, so I have access to pretty concentrated stuff. I've never though about how you would make it at home, but I suspect you could leave it in windex for a week or so, and get the same results. I honestly don't know. Ask somebody else.

Also, if your piece was chromed with a hard chrome for durability, like ball-hitches are, all the sanding and wire-brushing and acid-soaks in the world won't hardly make a dent. They aren't supposed to, that's what it's there for. At that point, it WILL take ammonia to get it off. I know. I've used ball-hitches as weapon components before, and had to get it off.

[Lloyd Clark]

Well, then maybe...I am always looking for new toys to put holes in the breastplate you sent me

Allan, as soon as it finally gets warm enough for us to lose the snow, ice and then the mud - I will send you pictures of me finally putting a lance through the breastplate. I am sure that the shock quintain I am building will give me about 200+lbs of "bracing" to allow the breastplate to act more naturally when hit (if that doesn't work, I have a nice bladed mace and horseman's warhammer that will )

But for $40 I would say go ahead and get the hammer.

[James Aldrich]

The Cold Steel War Hammer is a pretty good deal. All I did to mine was polish off the black paint, age it a little, and replace the langet screws with hobnails I happened to have on hand. The spike was an afterthought, something I had laying around from the dim past.

I picked up a second one on eBay for $25.00 which I consider a very good deal.