Daed Toolworks London Pattern Hammer

As with a few other items we sell, we rarely stock anything we don't make ourselves. These hammers are another exception. We are happy to offer these excellently made hammers from our friends over at Daed Toolworks. We have these in a limited supply and don't know when or how often we will have more. The following details are directly from the maker, Raney Nelson:

Over the past decade-plus, I figure I have made a couple hundred plane adjusting hammers of at least a dozen different patterns. Some I like more than others. But while the pattern, lines, and shapes differ among them, the functional needs of the tool have become pretty well set in stone for me. One face of the hammer, used to strike and adjust the blade, should be a hard, tough, and dimensionally stable material – most often that means a relatively soft metal; mild steel, bronze, brass, lead – even copper works quite well. This face should make it easy to deliver a concentrated and controlled blow, and needs to be small enough to strike blades that are covered somewhat by a wedge.

The second face should be replaceable, and employ a face that can be used to strike soft metal and precious infill woods without damage. For years, that requirement translated to a need for a rawhide face – which, I felt, was both hard and rugged enough to control both lateral and depth adjustments in nearly every hand plane I’d ever used, but could be steadfastly relied upon not to damage, dent, or ding precious infill woods and other materials. Recently, however, I have been converted to a replacement material – namely Delrin.

This current hammer, based on 19th c. British cross-pein hammers of a pattern most often referred to as London and/or Exeter pattern cross-panes.

I quite like the aesthetics of the design – and the sizing/balance is exactly what I shoot for. Generally, I prefer the balance to be weighted just slightly more toward the metal face – and with this pattern, the relatively narrow profile of the horizontal cross-pein allows for that face to be relatively long, which I find helpful for many blades.

One new feature of these hammers is that the removable faces are ‘bound’ in a 5/16″ deep tapered recess. This means that the removable heads/faces, which are also tapered to match, can be ‘preloaded’ under degree of pressure – an effect that greatly improves rigidity, and reduces energy losses between removable faces and the body of the hammer.

The head is approximately 3.75-4″ long, and has a weight of approximately 3-1/2 – 4 oz, depending on the installed face. The handle is 10-1/2″ long, white oak, and finished with soft wax.

Finished hammers ship with two replaceable faces – one face of black walnut, and another of black delrin.