My grandfather passed away several years ago. I have been lucky enough to have inherited some tools from my grandfather as well as being given additional tools by one of his two surviving brothers. Many (most) of these tools were their fathers (i.e. my great grandfather’s). I have cleaned up some of them and put them back in to use.
Recently I had come across a small cross peen sledge. It originally had a Lakeside branded handle, but it was not in great shape, had mold/mildew growing on it, wasn’t a tight fit anymore. Those are all things that a person could fix, admittedly, however I really wanted to put it back to use in my shop. The bigger issue with that thought was that the handle was just too long for my use cases of such a mallet. I like using a metal mallets around for holdfast setting and releasing, vintage machine assembly/disassembly, drive pins, etc. I prefer a slightly shorter handle than what it had on it.
I bought a hickory replacement hammer handle from a big box store, scrapped off the original finish, and used the scrapper to scrape the handle in to a faceted handle (10-sided). I’ve got an octagonal handle on my Lost Art Press lump hammer, and I grew to really like it, so thought I’d try something similar here. I’m glad I went that route because it is very comfortable in the hand, and helps register where it is in space as well.
I also decided to “make it my own”, in a manor of speaking, and laser engraved my own mark on both sides of the handle.
I then shaped the tenon of the handle to fit the head, as the original hammer handle was a lot more elongated oval than what this needed. I got it to fit and sit down to a point that I was happy with, cut the extra off, and wedged it in place.
The finish I chose was simply dewaxed shellac with a coat of soft touch wax. I like something that’s easy to repair or restore, but stands up fairly well in use. It’s got a light sheen, but is not slick in the hand. I really like it.
The last little tidbit is that I also noticed that my grandfather or great grandfather’s initials (they were the same apart from middle), was stamped in to the side of the sledge with a center punch.
I’ve found this same mark on quite a few of the tools (some with and some without the middle initials), so my best guess is it was my great grandfather’s as it matches well with the style used with his middle initial as well. Either way, this mallet won’t be going anywhere anytime soon.
I am thrilled to get this back in to use, and it has already earned a permanent home at the bench. I left this sledge sitting around for almost a year as I debated what to do with it. I wanted to put it back to use, but the question was whether I was going to try to save the handle or re-handle it.
I know it’s not the most preservative to rehandle it, but I think I made the right decision for me. It’s a tool, and the best use of a tool is to be functional and used. Maybe someday my own son can say “This was a hammer I remember my dad using all the time, and it goes all the way back to my great-great-grandfather”… But I’m hoping for many years before it’s a memory 🙂
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