Tool Talk

What's-It Forum => What's-It Forum => Topic started by: jimwrench on September 12, 2013, 11:09:21 AM

Title: scaling hammer
Post by: jimwrench on September 12, 2013, 11:09:21 AM
 Heres a hammer I acquired recently because of its odd configuration. Sellens 0n page 220 calls it a boiler scaling hammer. Yesterday while perusing that website on Ozark crafts (thanks Oily that's a great site) they show a hammer of similar construction albeit with a much shorter handle that they describe as being used to recut grooves in millstones that have been worn down. Anyone know any other uses for this hammer or who made it ?
Since I have no boiler or millstone it will go to Baraboo next week to try to find a new owner.
12 1/2 inches long.
Title: Re: scaling hammer
Post by: oldgoaly on September 12, 2013, 01:21:23 PM
on the order of a welder's chipping hammer, but for scale build up in a steam boiler? yours looks to be fairly sharp, one I have  that style is much more rounded. I'll take a pic later and post it.
Title: Re: scaling hammer
Post by: oldgoaly on September 12, 2013, 02:03:05 PM
When I went back to the shop found a couple of more similar type hamers


Title: Re: scaling hammer
Post by: HeelSpur on September 12, 2013, 04:44:54 PM
I was a boiler tech. in the navy and when in port part of our duty was to get inside the boiler and scrape the tubes. We usually had wire brushes with a scraper on the end and small welders hammers for the clumped up stuff. Don't remember any particular hammer specific for the job, it was basically grab what we could find and get the job done.
Title: Re: scaling hammer
Post by: BruceS on September 12, 2013, 09:22:51 PM
Just ask any USN Deck Ape what a chipping hammer is used for.    Paint,rust,chip,paint,rust,chip,paint,rust,chip,  the never ending battle.
Title: Re: scaling hammer
Post by: oldtools on September 12, 2013, 11:59:31 PM
I have a few like that!! Used it to  chip rust & stone.
Title: Re: scaling hammer
Post by: Branson on September 15, 2013, 09:40:02 AM
Yesterday while perusing that website on Ozark crafts (thanks Oily that's a great site) they show a hammer of similar construction albeit with a much shorter handle that they describe as being used to recut grooves in millstones that have been worn down.

Yours isn't for re-facing mill stones.  This is a case, and a job, when size counts, and bigger is better.  Yours is far to light weight to do much good on a 3 foot diameter piece of granite.
Title: Re: scaling hammer
Post by: Billman49 on September 15, 2013, 10:03:49 AM
Mill bill, used for dressing mill stones, usually are much bigger and heavier, have both faces in the same plane (at right angles to the axis, as in an adze) and have a loose head, held in a wooden holder (known as a thrift), sometimes using a removeable wooden wedge.. Smaller and lighter versions are a bricklayer's or mason's scutch... (modern ones have loose combs that are held in a steel head)
Title: Re: scaling hammer
Post by: rusty on September 15, 2013, 10:41:07 AM
> (modern ones have loose combs that are held in a steel head)

Terminology in the US is totally screwy, Millstone dressers hammer, but also called a Bush hammer (it is , but only the small size is used for millstones, stone workers have larger sized ones also), also a Millers hammer, or a Masons large breaking hammer. also a furrowing hammer, in spite of the fact it isn't used to make the furrows (a different hammer is, originally a Millstone pick, even tho it really a hammer)

Knight's also shows a Bush type Furrowing hammer with a single leaf in one side, so I guess it could make a grove also

Oddly, the the top millstone in a horizontal mill was also called a millstone hammer....

Title: Re: scaling hammer
Post by: Billman49 on September 16, 2013, 02:53:41 AM
Bad description on my part, scutch combs are replaceable (rather than loose) - they are double sided, and fit into a tapered slot in the hammer head. A bush hammer is a different beast, it has multiple loose plates held by a wedge - more a stone mason's tool than a mill stone dressing tool, but I would guess very useful in the millstone quarry for dressing the faces of stones when they are being made. Another type has mutiple indentations machines into the faces, like a chequereboard of mini pyramids - these may also be replaceable - used for much the same purpose - different hardnesses of stone require slightly different tools..
Title: Re: scaling hammer
Post by: oldtools on September 16, 2013, 02:18:07 PM
What ever the name is, it is a very useful hammer for chipping stone/brick or bodywork & rust,,, as long as it is the right tool for the job...