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Hammers

A large collection of hammers is handy, but all you really need is a flat faced hammer, ball-peen and a dishing hammer. Planishing hammers are good to smooth out bumps made with a peen. Many of our hammers have come from garage sales, thrift stores and antique shops. I don’t feel bad if I take a grinder to a hammer I picked up for a couple of dollars and repurpose it.

Some of the hammers we have collected.
A dishing hammer is either a metal hammer with a round face/head, or a hammer made with a hard material that is softer than metal. The idea is to make bowl shapes without scoring the metal as you would with a flat faced hammer. If you can get your hands on some big ball bearings, these make excellent dishing tools. You can also buy a low cost 3lb sledge/drilling hammer and use an angle grinder to make the face ball shaped.
A nylon hammer (center of photo) won’t damage the metal surface you are hammering. If you have a heavy ball peen hammer, you can pound out the rough shape and then use the dishing and planishing hammers to smooth out the bumps the peen made.
A mushroom dolly can be used like a hammer and makes short work of dishing projects.
Our rawhide hammer (left) is a prized possession of Sibylla! Plastic hammers are good too!
Two-way hammers are good because they don’t mar your project.