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jhm
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Material for hammer
Oct 20th, 2025 at 8:10pm
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I want to try and make a hammer for my Ballard build. What is a good material to use? All I have on hand is some 1018. Can I use it and case harden it? I have some old Casenit left.



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John Taylor
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Re: Material for hammer
Reply #1 - Oct 21st, 2025 at 8:14pm
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1018 will work with case hardening. I just made a hammer for a Stevens and used a piece of truck spring. It cuts OK with carbide and can be drilled if you run the drill slow. It can be filed but it's a bit hard on a file. No need to heat treat, it's hard enough as is.
  
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jhm
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Re: Material for hammer
Reply #2 - Oct 21st, 2025 at 8:33pm
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Didn't think of using an old spring. My brother has several old junk cars and trucks so I think I will go shopping tomorrow.Thanks Mr Taylor...



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John Taylor
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Re: Material for hammer
Reply #3 - Oct 22nd, 2025 at 1:57pm
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The thick springs from mobil home axles can make some very nice parts. I made a new breach block for a Stevens 44 and recently a breach block for a Favorite. A Bi-metal bandsaw blade will cut it.
  
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WCFMetalsmith
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Re: Material for hammer
Reply #4 - Oct 22nd, 2025 at 10:28pm
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Those axle springs are heat treated 5160 alloy, nice tough steel
I get that alloy of steel annealed and make lots of different mainsprings from it, then have them heat treated

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marlinguy
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Re: Material for hammer
Reply #5 - yesterday at 10:32am
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Some cars and trucks had thick springs like the overload leaf the trucks have as the bottom leaf. About 1/2" thick.
The cars that came with a mono leaf also were very thick near the centering pin area. Either should be plenty thick to make a hammer.
  
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steel-pounder
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Re: Material for hammer
Reply #6 - yesterday at 11:35am
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if there is a spring shop in your area you can normally get a handful of drops or shorts for a dozen doughnuts. they are annealed. when ready to harden heat to a good bright red with a torch and dunk in some hydraulic oil. when cool clean it real good and stick it in oven at 450 or 500 if your oven heats that hot. and alternate is to polish the part really well and heat it slowly until it hits a nice cobalt blue. polish and repeat.  this will make a nice spring hard hammer and the blue can be left if desired.

  
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marlinguy
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Re: Material for hammer
Reply #7 - yesterday at 11:48am
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steel-pounder wrote yesterday at 11:35am:
if there is a spring shop in your area you can normally get a handful of drops or shorts for a dozen doughnuts. they are annealed. when ready to harden heat to a good bright red with a torch and dunk in some hydraulic oil. when cool clean it real good and stick it in oven at 450 or 500 if your oven heats that hot. and alternate is to polish the part really well and heat it slowly until it hits a nice cobalt blue. polish and repeat.  this will make a nice spring hard hammer and the blue can be left if desired.



That's a great idea! We have two spring shops nearby that do all sorts of springs, and I bet they'd sell cut ends from their scrap cheap!
  
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