California Custom Knives: Custom Hammers

Sunday, February 6, 2011

Custom Hammers

I have been using texturing hammers and other specialty hammers in my forging process for years. What I have not done is to actually heat treat the hammer after altering it so that it would last for a long time! Well I finally did it, heat treated them both after I modified them. Both were ball peen hammers and each were created for special purposes. I am very pleased with the results.

The larger is a new de-scaling and texture hammer and the, smaller is a detail drawing hammer for smaller knives and for moving the metal back towards the choil area of the integrally forged blade.

I hope you enjoy the images:)

2 comments:

UnknownFebruary 10, 2011 at 5:28 PM
Don, Everything you do has that sculptor's touch!
But then tools that make tools should be both balanced and revered.
George Leone
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California Custom KnivesFebruary 10, 2011 at 8:22 PM
Thanks so much George! You would be the one to know!
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Perfection and Beauty

What is a Hand Made Knife?

I specialize in making Heirloom Quality Knives.
They are made by hand.
This means that, while I do now own a few power tools compared to the first 7-years when I had virtually little to speak of, other than a hand drill and then a drill press; I now own a grinder and a power hammer; and yet, the knives are still created with hand-held practices, using fairly simple tools for the most part.
All of my knives are designed and created by me. I am creating some stock reduction knives, but other than that....
Each blade is forged hot on an anvil to 90% of the shape that it will be when finished. This takes Skill and lots of attention to accomplish. Adding in a TW-90 grinder helped with post stock reduction heat treatment, a process that has allowed me to refine the edge geometry on my chef knives to a place where I am very pleased with the results.
Then each knife is tested for edge-flex and toughness. Some of the testing phase can be seen in the banner image above, where after the edge-flex test I chop on very hard wood.
If the knives still shave hair after this testing then they are good to go!
Both of the two chef knives in that banner image passed with flying colors and will be cleaned-up and have handles placed on them. And eventually go into the kitchens or campsites of the new owners.
Knives made my hand are beautiful!