War Hammer?

[A. G. Maisey]

This hammer looks pretty similar to a hammer owned by a fencer I used to know. He had it made by the local smith --- this was 1950's, when we still had smiths in country towns.

He put up rural fencing, the spike end was used like a carpenters center punch, ie, to provide a location hole for a nail to be driven or drilled.

The fencer put up rural fencing using Australian hardwood bush timber, he was driving relatively large steel spikes.

[CutlassCollector]

I had a look through Salaman's woodworking tools and there are pages and pages of different hammers!

A bit like axes there are not many uses for a spike on the reverse of a hammer - mining perhaps and weapons of course.

However, there is a fairly close match to a Ship Maul used by shipwrights to hammer in the trenails (wooden pins) and large nails during shipbuilding. The tool would then be reversed and the spike used to hammer the pins/nails below the surface of the wood to allow trimming to shape afterwards.

They came in many sizes between 1 1/2 to 8 lbs with handles up to 2' 9".

[C4RL]

Originally Posted by CutlassCollector

there are not many uses for a spike on the reverse of a hammer - mining perhaps

Stone mason's.
Geologist's.
Panel beater's.
Welders slag.
Blacksmith's hot punch.
Piton (climbers).

That's just from memory without Googling.
While I agree spiked hammers aren't common there are still plenty of trades use/used them, many obscure & now forgotten.

[Sajen]

Hello Mgolab,

Allow me to ask, how did you de-rust the hammer head and finish its surface?

Regards,
Detlef

[mgolab]

Hello: I purchased it in that manner.

[C4RL]

Coal breaking hammer?
Common in UK households years ago when coal wasn't graded as well.