Two rusty heads

[rxh]

I bought these two heads on Saturday. Please can anyone tell me their correct names? I found a very similar looking tool to the one with the nail pulling slot in the 1938 Marples catalogue, where it was called an orange chest hammer.

 

[spb]

What size are they? The one on the left looks like a cutter mattock, but without an idea of scale it's hard to be sure.

 

[rxh]

What size are they? The one on the left looks like a cutter mattock, but without an idea of scale it's hard to be sure.

The one on the left is 160 mm long, with 40 mm wide cutting edges. The edges don't look like they have been used on masonry or earth.
The one on the right is 150 mm long, with 55 mm wide cutting edge.

 

[AndyT]

I think you are right about the grocer's/orange chest hammer. You've got a flat end to pry a crate open, a nail puller and a hammer head to close up again. What a different world it was before plastics!

Here's a page from Salaman with another picture, marked Ward but likely a standard printer's block.



Not sure about the other one. Even if it wasn't made as a mattock, it looks like it would work as one.

 

[AndyT]

I've remembered what sort of hammer has two flat peins at right angles to each other - the boilermaker's scaling hammer. I think these were used inside big industrial boilers to chip away limescale and I guess the choice of heads enabled the user to attack a lump in two directions without needing to shift his body in a confined space. They are still around and are also used for removing flaking rust. Here's an example from FFX



https://ffx.co.uk/Product/Get/Faithfull ... 454G--16Oz

The shape isn't exactly the same and I don't know if yours is a variant shape of one of these or a different tool.

(There was another, rarer hammer with a pair of ends like these, used by sawsmiths to flatten and tension the sawplate, but that's really not likely.)

 

[rxh]

Thanks Andy - I compared it with a scaling or chipping hammer and, as you can see, the cutting edges are more acute. It seems to work quite well as a small combined hatchet/adze.

 

[AndyT]

Ah, how nice it is to see the refined tool that was hidden inside that unpromising lump.

Are you aiming to find one of each type of hammer?

 

[rxh]

Ah, how nice it is to see the refined tool that was hidden inside that unpromising lump.

Are you aiming to find one of each type of hammer?

Thanks Andy - I think it would be quite a challenge to find them all However, I'm always on the lookout for something interesting.

Here is the orange chest hammer, cleaned up and with a handle fitted:

 

[9fingers]

Mod Hat on: Just a very gentle hint.
I wonder if your obvious attention to detail in your work could perhaps extend to using the place inline command to insert your photos into the posts and get rid of the "piled up at the end look with dotted lines round them. Posting a photo is a two stage process. 1) upload and 2) insert them in your text
I've corrected some of your other posts and even included what to do but these seem to have passed by unnoticed.
Thanks in advance
Bob

 

[rxh]

Mod Hat on: Just a very gentle hint.
I wonder if your obvious attention to detail in your work could perhaps extend to using the place inline command to insert your photos into the posts and get rid of the "piled up at the end look with dotted lines round them. Posting a photo is a two stage process. 1) upload and 2) insert them in your text
I've corrected some of your other posts and even included what to do but these seem to have passed by unnoticed.
Thanks in advance
Bob

Thanks for that information. I thought that "place inline" was an optional feature to format the style of the post. It was never my intention to irritate you or cause you additional work. Maybe this conversation could have been conducted by personal messages rather than being aired in public?

 

[9fingers]

Thanks for picking up the message. I mentioned it in a light hearted gentle way and within the thread so that others might see it and become aware of how to insert pictures properly rather than compose PM to numerous other members.
Thanks
Bob