Comments on: Questions on Glue, Nails and Drawbores

By: William Duffield

William Duffield — Sat, 24 Nov 2007 14:46:46 +0000

A cross-pein hammer is also a blacksmith’s tool, used for narrowing and spreading the end of piece of hot iron. See Fred Holder’s definitions, at http://www.fholder.com/Blacksmithing/article8.htm

What you have there is a Warrington pattern hammer, and a quite elegant one, designed for the exact purpose you describe. It works just as well today for wire brads as it did for cut and forged nails.

Peace,
Sir William of the Cohansey

By: Chris Somers

Chris Somers — Tue, 20 Nov 2007 17:15:50 +0000

Chris, thanks. Makes sense on the ball peen, as this also was my grandfather’s and he was a machinist in the US Navy, and a tool and die maker afterwards. -C

By: Christopher Schwarz

Christopher Schwarz — Sat, 17 Nov 2007 03:53:41 +0000

Chris,

A ball peen hammer is for metalwork — hammering out dents and making dents. It’s not a woodworking tool, though my first "woodworking" hammer was my grandfather’s ball peen. Still have it somewhere….

Chris

By: Chris Somers

Chris Somers — Fri, 16 Nov 2007 21:48:34 +0000

Ah! Duh! Of course there was that article – but at the time, I really focused on the cut nails part of it; I ended up making the Dining Tray project from that issue. Now I’ll go back and absorb the part on hammers I actually do own a Maydole claw hammer that belonged to my Mom’s father. It’s just the head now, as the handle broke years ago.

Follow-up Q, then: what’s the design reason for a "ball peen" hammer, then?

-C

By: Christopher Schwarz

Christopher Schwarz — Fri, 16 Nov 2007 09:09:38 +0000

It’s the cross-pien (sometimes called the cross-pane or cross peen). It is used to start nails that you are pinching between your fingers.

The form is more common in English tools than American ones. I wrote a good deal about hammers (and cut nails) in the issue with the Shaker Enfield Cabinet on the cover if you are interested.

Chris

By: Chris Somers

Chris Somers — Fri, 16 Nov 2007 06:45:55 +0000

Chris, (Gary),

That hammer in the photo – what purpose does the flat end of the head have?

Chris

By: Gary Roberts

Gary Roberts — Thu, 15 Nov 2007 18:23:58 +0000

Chris

On the topic of nails, there is to my mind a difference between wire nails and cut nails. Our familiar wire nails split the wood fibers whereas cut nails shear on their way through the wood. The use of wire nails is often the reason for the poor reputation of nails in general. Or at least that’s my take on it. I tend to look at things from the restorers viewpoint also. I’ve restored more pieces of furniture (or tools) than I have made them from scratch.

A piece of furniture that lasted for 400 years could be one of those that was made correctly. We don’t see the ones that failed as they found their way to the garbage dump or the fireplace. Sort of like antique tools… they incredible failures are considered rare because no one wanted to buy one… or they where so delicate they self-destructed.

And that is one nice hammer in the photo.

Gary

By: John Leko

John Leko — Thu, 15 Nov 2007 14:39:26 +0000

Reading question #3 about the soundness of drawboring, my first thought was of the original upon which Graham Blackburn’s "Bishop’s Throne" (or "Gothic Armchair" in his book "Furniture Design") was based. This chair, now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, was made sometime in the fifteenth century constructed with drawborn frame and panel techniques. For this piece to hold up after 400 years, I would think would be a fairly convincing argument for the practice of drawboring.