First, apologies for a second sales post in one day. Tune in tomorrow for more words about woodworking.
Second, we now have our new Warrington Pattern Hammer in stock (as well as 1:4 Dovetail Templates and Pinch Rods).
This small hammer (the head is about 4 ounces) is ideal for setting and sinking small nails. The cross-peen (sometimes called the cross-pane) starts the nail. You hold the nail between your thumb and forefinger and strike it with the peen. (The peen misses your fingers and hits the nails.) Then you turn the hammer around and finish the job with the hammer’s round face. The cross-peen is also ideal when setting moulding planes. And the Warrington is an excellent plane-setting hammer. Its weight and size are perfect for making lateral adjustments to block planes or bench planes.
– Fitz
Mine arrived today, and I’m absolutely delighted with it: perfect weight, perfect balance, lovely handle – a true joy to see, hold, and to use!
(And yes, I’ve already driven a few test nails.)
Out of curiosity, I weighed both it and the old Swedish (Tors hammare brand) cross peen I’ve had since time out of ken; my Crucible cross-peen came in at exactly 150.4 grams (=5.3052 oz) while my old one was 188.4 grams (=6.64561 oz), but those 30 grams/1.05822 oz do make a considerable difference – the Crucible feels more accurate and better balanced! Mind you, as a percentage, 30 grams is a fair bit: 20% of the weight of Crucible or 16% of the Tors hammare one.
In any case: a hammer most heartily recommended for they whose blows should be light but right!
Sorry: 188.4-150.4 = 38 grams difference = 1.34041 oz, i.e. 25% more or 20% less in weight. (Slaps forehead.)
They are beautiful and I am a tiny bit sorry, that i cannot order ut to germany.
No doubt, a beautiful tool.
Hi Fitz, love the hammer, I have an old Stanley cross-peen hammer when they still manufactured them here in the UK, unfortunately they stopped manufacture quite a few years ago, now all you can see in our shops here are Amtech and the like, ok stuff but not my cup of tea as they say.
I cannot help feeling the world has gone a bit, excuse the term, anal, regards quality goods, it all seems to have started with the women’s fashion industry with Gucci etc bags, I did work for the automotive industry and every little detail is micro managed to be perfect, woodworking tools seem to have gone the same way, I’m not decrying it, I have bought some of these tools in the past and really appreciate the beauty in them, I suppose making items away from the norm catches attention and produces sales.
Anyway, great to see you are designing and manufacturing good usable tools.
Oh, by the way, what did Chris think of the antique floor vise pic I sent ?
Is there historical documentation attesting to how these hammers were used in the past?
It shows up in Spon’s (1910) and Salaman’s “Dictionary of Tools” (which says the first known published place it’s called a “Warrington Hammer” is the Sheffield “List” of 1862). That’ll get you started.