Questions on restoring body hammers

I've got a small collection of body hammers that am starting to restore and have a couple of questions for the guys that have done this.

First off, I have a few hammers with chipped edges. In order to remove the chips I would have to grind away a good amount of metal. So my question is, has anyone added metal back to the edges via welding and then ground smooth?
There is a photo of one of the hammers in question. Its a Porter Ferguson and you just don't come come across PF tools everyday and I've to see one without chipped edges, I have 3-4 of this hammer.

<a href="http://s969.photobucket.com/user/sevt_chevelle/media/Whats%20hiding%20in%20the%20toolbox/29P-FBH-5.jpg.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i969.photobucket.com/albums/ae172/sevt_chevelle/Whats%20hiding%20in%20the%20toolbox/29P-FBH-5.jpg" border="0" alt="29 photo 29P-FBH-5.jpg"/></a>


Next question, what are you using to match the green that Plomb/proto used? I bought a spray can of rustolem forest green that matches an original handle but not sure how it will hold up. Also what color was the heads, they look like they are Phosphated?

For the guys that have done Snap on hammers, how do you tell what year the hammer was made? Also, how are you refinishing the hammers and getting no tape lines along what Ill call the side face where its stamped Snap on and part number?


Thanks for any help...Eric

Snap on. yours is a 76. The Blue Point body hammers are older. Same hammer, The Snap on hammers would be black. just use that blue paint tape, Use a extra fine deburring wheel to clean the faces and edges. Use olive oil on the handle.
Date code sheet:
http://www.collectingsnapon.com/index.php?page=Data_Chart/Date Chart

Olive oil? That's a new one on me. What are the benefits from that treatment?

For the OP, there is a crown (curve) to those hammer faces that would need to be preserved if they are to be used. The chips on that first hammer look pretty bad. I could see maybe a good job hardfacing and grinding back working, but someone more experienced hopefully will chime in.

I have refurbished over 150 body hammers and have used a TIG welder to repair/rebuild faces, chisel and point when need be. I generally use a rod for 4100 series steel. This has proven to work very well for me. If the striking surfaces are not horribly abused, I generally remove the damaged area with a quick pass of 36-40 grit, followed by 60, 80 and 120. I use a 2" wide belt on a dedicated belt sander for steel use. I attempt to keep the heat to a minimum and that is why I use the single pass method with the progressing the grits. I keep a half gallon container of coolant handy to keep the overall temp low. Once I removed the pits, gouging and chips at 120 grit, I determine how fine I want need to make the striking surface and continue until that is achieved. Most of the hammers I use for Steel are finished with 220 grit. Those that are used for Aluminum are polished to the 1000 to 2000 grit area depending on how ridiculous I am feeling using a 3" DA and then buffing with 3M Finesse it polish. I carefully use an annealing and oil treatment on any head surface that requires extreme reworking. I would not refer to this as heat treating as it only stabilizes the atoms in the steel back to their original order.

When dealing with hammer heads that were originally finished with black phosphate, I use a Block Oxide treatment which only requires about 200 degrees F and can be done at home therefore eliminating the need for an outside source. If you do not mind paint, there are a few brands that offer lightly textured satin black that work very well. I have mixed Red paint that matches later MAC hammers as well ad Cornwell blue and gloss black. I use oil base paint and us a catalyst/drying agent from Majic paint for this. It works great. The oil base has great adhesion and is extremely durable.

I have dyes mixed for Snap-on, older Brown MAC and the Raspberry MATCO handles that I use for preserving those colors. I have mixed 2 shades of green for the Plvmb/Proto handles. I use an oil base paint with the catalyst/drying agent as I do for the hammer head paints. When it comes to handles, I either source a prefab Hickory handle and modify it to my needs or cut my own from Hickory that I keep on hand. I have a method that I use for duplicating the Octagonal handles used on many body hammers. Once the product is finished, I soak the head with the handle attached in a shallow pool of undiluted antifreeze. This swells the wood fibers and stays in the wood for for a long period of time before evaporating.

I hope you find this information helpful.

Snapmom, thanks for the link that's exactly the information I was seeking!

Hammer1963, if that PF was yours how would you proceed? Would you TIG it or grind it down? The chips are on all four sides.

None of these hammers I plan on using, I've managed almost 20yrs in doing body/resto work with nothing more then a Ron Covell ******* and some newish Martin hammers. They are all show pieces, minus the few odd ball hammers I use time to time but I also have duplicates of said hammer.

Where are you getting your oil based paint, I looked on Majic site and didn't see anything? Have any mixes for the Herbrand blue and PF red? Are you priming before hand or just spraying the oil based paint right on the head?

If it was me I would put a nice even round over on that chipped edge.
Smooth and polish the face to the nicest finish you can get and you are done

Bob

I agree with Hammer1963's method described above; I bought a hammer he restored and it's beautiful!

When I paint my hammer heads, I only mask the striking faces and paint right over everything else. I do my final sanding passes after paint to get a crisp edge and make sure the stamped letters are filled with paint.

I've found that some of the Snap-on body hammers do not have date codes. I'm not sure what date ranges didn't receive stamps, but I have 3-4 without. As Snapmom said, your hammer was made in 1976.

I don't know if you've seen this thread, but several people chimed in with their techniques and pictures.
http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=94925

sevt_chevelle said:

Snapmom, thanks for the link that's exactly the information I was seeking!

Hammer1963, if that PF was yours how would you proceed? Would you TIG it or grind it down? The chips are on all four sides.

None of these hammers I plan on using, I've managed almost 20yrs in doing body/resto work with nothing more then a Ron Covell ******* and some newish Martin hammers. They are all show pieces, minus the few odd ball hammers I use time to time but I also have duplicates of said hammer.

Where are you getting your oil based paint, I looked on Majic site and didn't see anything? Have any mixes for the Herbrand blue and PF red? Are you priming before hand or just spraying the oil based paint right on the head?

Click to expand...

I would do what afazz recommended on the PF in the photo. Remove an equal amount on all 4 sides of the hammer removing about 70% of the damage. The remaining damage should come out when you resurface the striking face. By using this method, the amount of material removed will be negligible and won't compromise the properties of the hammer. Truth be, you'll be the only one that knows.

I do have colors for PF and Herbrand handles and heads. I use Sherwin-Williams oil base industrial because it does not require an etching primer, but I do do apply a minimal coat of etching primer and use a wet on wet method by applying the paint as soon as the primer flashes. I use my Herbrand hammers almost daily and the paint has held up well. The Majic catalyst is available at Tractor Supply.