The old timer at a swap meet in Ohio who showed me how to read a hammer's ring

Emma Green · 2026-10-08T11:05:03.53209+00:00

I was at a swap meet in Springfield about 5 years back, poking through a bucket of beat up hammers, when this older guy on a folding chair next to me said most of them were dead. I asked what he meant, and he took a 3 pound cross peen and tapped it with a little screwdriver, then tapped a good one right after. The dead one just kind of thudded, but the good one rang out clear and held the note for a second or two. He said a working hammer tells you it's got its temper just by the sound, and I had never heard anyone put it that way before. Now when I'm at yard sales or estate cleanouts I tap every hammer before I even look at the face. Does anyone else go by sound when they're picking up old tools, or am I just picking up somebody's weird habit?

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The old timer at a swap meet in Ohio who showed me how to read a hammer's ring | Blacksmiths - Chatter Central