Hi all, I have a hammer marked hand made on the side, does anyone have any information on who made this tool? Im asking because I have one my grandfather used to own,and I want to use it,but not if its collectable,or rare.
thank mark.
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Replies
Would you like a haircut over the phone too?
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SOME PEOPLE ARE LIKE SLINKIES...THEY ARE NOT REALLY GOOD FOR ANYTHING, BUT...THEY STILL BRING A SMILE TO YOUR FACE WHEN YOU PUSH THEM DOWN A FLIGHT OF STAIRS
Would you like a haircut over the phone too?
That depends.......................How much???
....also, which hair will be cut and how close? I have not heard any reports about Don's haircutting skills, although he gave Doug a good close shave with Occam's razor just a while ago. :-)Lataxe, a hand-made boy.PS Was the OP serious or is this a wind-up by Philip in disguise, just for fun and variety after that other great night out in Doug's $500 sharpening thread?
Here's Don in action:
View Image
The vacuum attachment keeps his wife from getting angry about the hair all over the floor of his dining room.
Lee
What on earth is that thing Lee? Black & Pecker follicle wrecker? Scalp massager with dandruff collector? Ron Popeils do it yourself lobotomizer?
................................................
SOME PEOPLE ARE LIKE SLINKIES...THEY ARE NOT REALLY GOOD FOR ANYTHING, BUT...THEY STILL BRING A SMILE TO YOUR FACE WHEN YOU PUSH THEM DOWN A FLIGHT OF STAIRS
That, my friend, is a Flowbee! It is a set adjustable blades, attached to a vacuum cleaner. This facilitates hair clean-up, while at the same time giving the old hair a buzz. Problem is, you pretty much just get everything one length, so the term "crew-cut" comes to mind. I first saw the Flowbee on late-night TV ads. I think it's still $19.95
Lee
I believe you will find this a very controversial topic. There are, with out a doubt, some museum quality tools out there that deserve to be saved behind and under glass. But for the most part, IMHO, Tools deserve to be used if at all possible and cared for with utmost respect. A heritage put in our trust to be passed on to future Tool Galoots for their pleasure to use.
I have some of my Grandfathers and G Grandfathers tools that I use quite often and other that are as old and older and use them with pride. As I hope my Son and Grandsons will.
Work Safe, Count to 10 when your done for the day !!
Bruce S.
Mark ,
Old hammers are very ineresting and fun to find unique ones .
Do a Google search on old hammers or the likes , some had a flat spot for starting a nail with .
dusty, keeper of many a old hammer
I can answer at least part of your question without quite as much sarcasm ;-)
Like any antique tool, some hammers have collector's value, and some don't. This is a big generalization, but almost any carpenter's hammer made in the last 125 years that is otherwise unornamented is worth $0.50-25 depending on how good a shape it's in and what venue it's sold in (i.e., garage sale or tool collector's meet). In other words, it has value as a hammer and not much else.
Hammers for certain particular tasks (for example, a piano tuner's hammer - they're usually highly ornamented), hammers that have exotic species for handles, hammers with ornamental castings (like a boar or bear's head - I've seen both), and really oddball patented hammers that didn't make it in the market may be worth $100 or more depending on how fancy or rare they are.
Finally, examples of very early, very highly ornamented and of exotic metals such as silver, and early patented Maydole hammers may be worth considerably more. Maydole hammers, by the way, were originally made by the gentleman that figured out how to keep the handle on tool designed to beat things with - in other words, the adze-head design that every hardware store hammer has used ever since.
I don't know what the world record for a hammer is, but I've seen one go for more than $2000 at an antique tool auction. It was an incredibly beautiful piano tuner's hammer with a silver head cast as a dolphin and an ivory handle inlaid with mother of pearl. I rather doubt one would find something like that laying around an old workshop!
D,
I suspect you may be a Hammer Connoisseur straying over from Galoots, and hope that the o.p will now post a picture of his heirloom hammer for further evaluation.
In the meantime, and whilst I decipher what Lataxe is saying, would you give an unbiased opinion on the hammer pictured even if you have not seen this type previously. It is not chrome plated or solid steel or titanium, so I would surmise it would not have been included as part of the Surgeon General's medical instruments kit.Philip Marcou
Philip,Co-incidentally, I have one of them shiny tappers in my shed. I find it has poise and delicacy, so that one may employ it to adjust things that are firmly wedged or clamped, with a great deal of accuracy and precision.This being so, I am thinking of volunteering it's services to certain Knots denizens, who need a precise tap or ten to various spots on their noggins in order to re-align their synapses back into a semblance of the human form, from that "wedged and clamped" mental condition they currently find themselves in. (I believe aliens have examined them and forgotten to put the brain cells back in the proper order; also they have put in too much brain-glue to stop the brain sliding out the nose when they speak).Following the hammer applications ("knocking sense into them", we might call the operation) I will send them to Derek for various psychological tests. In this way he will be able to apply his whole range of skills - testing woodworkers for design faults in both their WW assumptions but also in their wider mental processes (assuming the hammer-knocks have re-started any mental processes at all, from their moribund state).Lataxe, of the loon-tappers and fixed-idea shunters club.
Edited 9/15/2008 6:52 am ET by Lataxe
Sire,
I will be reading your missive daily for some time to come, first thing in the morning, so that I may at least start off the day with a smile....Philip Marcou
Edited 9/16/2008 6:20 am by philip
Philip - No, hammers is not something I collect, but old tools and the stories behind them fascinate me. What I collect is more mundane - very old wooden molding planes, british infill planes, saws, etc...
I honestly don't know what the specific purpose of the hammer you pictured is, though it's clearly a modern manufactured tool. I'd suspect that rules out a tuner's hammer - not too much need for those anymore in the age of electronic musical instruments that never go out of tune.
D,Philip is teasing a bit - he made that beautiful wee hammer he pictured. I have one and use it primrily for knocking blades in Mujingfang wooden planes to adjust the cut. It works a treat.The lovely li'le item is good for many precise tapping jobs. For example, it will knock a plug (square or round) into a hole with no damage and to a precise depth (so easy to make the hole too deep then lose the plug with an over-forceful blow otherwise).Personally I think it's the dog's bollox of a plane-hammer and versatile to boot. I think the lad should be flogging them to discerning customers at $??? a time. What would you pay? :-)Lataxe, a bit tapped hisself.
Lataxe - I thought that might be the case (that he made them), they looked too new and far too well manufactured to have been anything other than a Galoot's product, or something NASA contracted (you know, those $700 titanium hammers they take up on the Sapce Shuttle).
My plane hammer is a bit more down-to-earth. Brass on one face, Maple on the other, bubinga handle. Made with slave labor in East Asia, no doubt. I think I paid $50 for it a while back, and with the escalating price of brass these days, I wonder if I could almost get my money back out of it if I sold it to a scrap dealer....
Now you did it ,
Here are a few of my favorites , I don't use them in my work
Does anyone know what these hammers would be used for ?
dusty, the collector
Dusty,I would use them for hitting stuff. :-)Perhaps they are pin hammers, used to knock in them tiny brass and steel pins we used to employ with picture frames and moldings before lovely nail guns and similar were invented? The long edges would get into the grooves of moldings, for example.Of course, I am guessing madly.Lataxe
Edited 9/15/2008 12:45 pm ET by Lataxe
dusty,
Jeweler's/ clock/watchmakers hammers, used for rivetting and light metalwork.
Ray
Those were way too easy for a tool guy like you , I have a few more I'll dig out .
That's what I have always thought them to be as well .
Lataxe , the handles are so thin , you couldn't really hit things very hard.
just enough to nudge a Brass pin into a clock works gears maybe.
dusty
dusty, I vote with Ray. They would be used in the smaller type by silver/goldsmiths, jewelers and the little bigger types by coppersmiths, tinknockers and machinists to do fine or decorative work.
Paddy, the used to was coppersmith.
Here is an older style hammer with a different shaped head and the other one is much larger and heavier , what do you think the big ones for Ray ?
Lataxe thinks it is for hitting things , it is , that rascal .
dusty
dusty,
Salaman, in his Dictionary of Tools, shows a similar hammer to your smaller one as his example of an early "adze eye" hammer, as invented by Maydole. The big boy, I'd call a ripping hammer. Supposedly the straight claws are useful for removing clapboards, and separating two-bys that have been nailed together.
Ray
Ray ,
Sorry for the lousy pictures , the adze eye model is a standard mid size hammer , the larger is really quite a bit heavier a head . Look at the diameter of the striking surface .
An old carpenter friend gave it to me about 30 years ago , it was well used then , it is a Stanley and I was told it was a flooring hammer .
dusty
so many hammers , so little time , and only a few thumbs
Edited 9/17/2008 12:22 am ET by oldusty
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