Hammer Handle

[HandyDan]

I bought this hammer thinking it would be handy to keep close to the lathe. It has a copper alloy head on one end to knock a drive spur in. First time I used it the handle broke, dry rot?, but I thought I would put a handle on it someday. Someday is over a year later but it is here and I decided to make one. I thought this might be better done using offset turning and proceeded in that direction. Got a piece of Hard Maple and went to town on it.

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Couple hours later I had this.

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This picture doesn't show it but I made a nice tight fit for the head and when I gave it one last turn of the handle in the wood vise while pressing it together I ended up with this.

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Perfect!!!!!!!! Well tomorrow was another day. I realized that I didn't need to mess with the off set turning so the next one went faster. Got another blank marked out the handle shape and cut it on the band saw to rough it out. I just cut the thin handle shape and let the wider shape form while turning. There was some hand sculpting and sanding involved especially to fit the head. I am happier with the second version and know full well I could have bought one. I did this as an "I bet I could make a handle" idea and enjoyed the process. Here is the rough sawn blank, both views. It went on the lathe from here and was completely sculpted when I removed it.

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Here is the finished product. The copper end is replaceable and someday? I may go to the metal lathe and make a brass end.

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[Nickp]

Looks like you "handled" that disappointment rather well...

...ba-rum-pum...

[Stick486]

sweet!!!
need something else to do???

[Stick486]

..ba-rum-pum..

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[roxanne562001]

Very nice

[Cherryville Chuck]

It looks as good or better than oem style replacement. I had to make one a couple of years ago to replace the handle in a pickeroon. I find the pickeroon very handy when doing firewood but handles that fit the odd sized head seem to be non existent these days so I made one out of some birch lumber I have. I wish the birch was a little tougher but it has worked well for a couple of years now so can't complain really and it was fun to make. I just band sawed mine to shape and then went at it with a radiused blade spoke shave. Right now I'm working on a hatchet handle out of a piece of curved cherry. Bowl adzes have short curved handles so I want to try that with the hatchet and see if it works better for rough trimming.

[tomp]

@HandyDan Very nice. Looks like you might have made the necked-down section a little thicker on the remake? I'm not an experienced turner (although working on it), and don't understand "offset turning" - at least as it would apply to your handle - it looks pretty symmetrical along the length.

I bought a non-metallic mallet recently, mostly for driving chisels, got it home and realized that the handle definitely didn't work for me - I move my hand location up and down the shaft, depending on how hard I'm planning on hitting, and the OEM handle had a very pronounced hand swell that kind on locked you into one position. I left the swell at the end intact, but made the inner part fairly uniform for the most part, kept trying the "feel" in different positions as I removed the material and wound up with something that has pretty much the same feel no matter how much I choke up on it. Finished up wrapping the handle with hockey tape as demonstrated by Rob Cosman. Really like using the tape to help the grip on handles - clamps, coping saws, mallets, etc. - but particularly on F-clamps where it lets you really snug down on the grip.

Photos in order - the original handle, after re-shaping and with the tape wrap.

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And here's a photo showing some clamps with wrapped handles

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The first one took me forever, now I can sit down and wrap a half dozen or so in just a few minutes (still got a bunch to go though).

[Cherryville Chuck]

I'm not an experienced turner (although working on it), and don't understand "offset turning" - at least as it would apply to your handle -

Most oem handles are elliptical in cross section. An elliptical shaped handle is easier to maintain in the right orientation because of the way it fits in your hand, i.e less likely to spin sideways as you strike with it. If you chuck it twice at points on either side of center and just turn until each leading edge gets rounded you'll get an elliptical cross section.

I like the idea of wrapping the handle. I hadn't thought about using hockey tape (very un-Canadian of me eh?) and finding the old cloth type electrical tape is rare these days.

[HandyDan]

I did make the second handle a bit thicker. The first one got thin playing with the offset turning. As with most things the second handle is much improved over the first one. I found the blank should be cut to the part of the handle and as wide as the widest part of the handle. Cut the one end to the thickest part of the hammer head hole then both ends and then center both ends on the lathe being real careful setting the centers. Filing and sanding will be required after the turning is done but that is easily done while still mounted in the lathe. I think if I made a third handle it would be slightly improved over the second but not enough for me to do it.

[Stick486]

can you make Mikey a new handle???
seems I broke his Eswing this morning...

[tomp]

I'm not an experienced turner (although working on it), and don't understand "offset turning" - at least as it would apply to your handle -

Most oem handles are elliptical in cross section. An elliptical shaped handle is easier to maintain in the right orientation because of the way it fits in your hand, i.e less likely to spin sideways as you strike with it. If you chuck it twice at points on either side of center and just turn until each leading edge gets rounded you'll get an elliptical cross section.

I like the idea of wrapping the handle. I hadn't thought about using hockey tape (very un-Canadian of me eh?) and finding the old cloth type electrical tape is rare these days.

Now that you pointed it out, I guess that handles are/should be elliptical to some extent, need to pay more attention obviously. Have to look for a video on offset turning, although it can't be that much of an offset for a small handle like that. I've probably got a ways to go before I try something like that and would probably turn it round, flatten the sides with a plane and then bland the intersections.

Here's a link to the video where Rob Cosman shows how he wraps tool handles Wrapping Tool Handles

[Jon]

Many a year ago I bought a set of ball peen hammers at a farm sale. Never have used them but I was attracted to the set by this one. The wrap is very well done.

[Herb Stoops]

OH, the old wire wrap, used to see a lot of those around the farm. Save the handle when they miss the target. That one even looks like it has some grip carving.
Herb

[Cherryville Chuck]

I finished making my hatchet handle last night. Made from a piece of cherry. This piece had quite a curve which had me wondering if it was good for anything but firewood when I got to idea to make the handle out part of it. I bought an adze earlier this year and have noticed that some bowl adzes have short curved handles so I thought I’d try that. The photo shows the finished handle with the other half I got the blank from plus the other side of the original piece that shows the curve it had.

Since the handle pretty much followed the grain it should be pretty strong. Trying to get that much curve from a straight grained piece might not last long. I gave it a try last night and for short swings that just use the elbow and not the shoulder it worked fairly well so it was a test with a satisfactory ending so far. Time will tell if I would do it again.