[Sca-cooks] turning hammer?- OT

[marilyn traber 011221]

> > Saint Phlip,
> > CoD, who, after having looked fruitlessly for two years for a turning
> > hammer, was GIVEN one today at the flea market....
> 
> I assume this is some kind of special hammer used for blacksmithing, 
> but all I can think of is a spatula. And that makes me think of 
> Drakey and nailing wafers. :-)
> 
> Stefan

A turning hammer, Stefan (and Cadoc) is what farriers call it- a rounding 
hammer is what smiths call it. I started as a farrier, so...

All it is, is a hammer with one face convex and the other face flat. As soon 
as my computer is working again, I'll send a picture. The edges of the face 
are radiused so you don't put dings and creases into the hot metal you're 
working, and it's particularly useful for bending steel, as in 
horseshoes "the hard way", as in edge on, to help make the curve at the toe 
of the horseshoe. The head is usually about 32 oz/ 2 lbs- plenty of heft for 
a hard blow, but not so heavy it will wear you out (the claw hammers that 
everyone uses for carpentry are usually 16 oz, to give you some basis for 
comparison).

The hammer that you use for actually hammering the nails into the shoe and 
the hoof is called, oddly enough, a shoeing hammer ;-) and it looks rather 
like a claw hammer, and is usually 12-16 ozs. The differences are that the 
head is shaped particularly at the hammer end to hit horseshoe nails without 
hitting the area around them, and the "claws" are designed to twist and break 
off the "points" of the nails in preparation for clinching them over so they 
don't pull out of the hoof. It also has a handle made of apple wood (usually) 
for additional flex- one of the characteristics of modern horseshoe nails is 
that, if hit softly, they go in straight, if hit hard, they curve out (of the 
hoof).

Most horseshoe nails nowadays have a rough spot on one side of the head 
(called "city heads") so the farrier can place the nail into the nail hole by 
feel, without having to look at it. If you put the nail in so that it bends 
in the wrong direction, the nail goes into the soft tissue (rather like the 
quick of your fingernail, except much more structurally specialized) you 
suddenly have a horse with a very sore foot who now has a puncture wound very 
subject to infection- not a good thing.

Saint Phlip,
CoD

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