The real beauty of blacksmithing lies in the fact that you can make your own tools. That is great for various reasons; saving money, learning a new skill, and potentially selling them. Every blacksmith needs a good-quality hammer that will last a long time, so learning to forge one is a very important blacksmithing skill.
After experimenting with many different types of steel for making blacksmithing hammers, we concluded that 1045, 4140, and 5160 are some of the best choices for making blacksmithing hammers. All of them will produce a nice and good-quality product.
All three types of steel are available on Amazon as forge-ready materials:
- 4140 steel square bar (already shaped to make hammers easily)
- 1045 steel bar (requires some folding to create a better three-dimensional shape)
- 5160 steel bar (same as 1045 regarding its shape)
Don’t let the thinner bar shape discourage you from getting a certain material if you are a beginner. Reshaping thin steel bars is one of the best beginner ways to practice forging quality steel in any shape you want.
Consider that many steel types will serve you well for hammer making, but we found that these three worked well for many other blacksmiths and us. We will discuss their benefits and disadvantages, but first, we must understand what makes a great hammer.
What to Look for in a Good Blacksmithing Hammer?
As you know, the hammer is one of the most important blacksmithing tools. Besides the anvil, it is probably the largest association for blacksmithing. So, without a hammer, there is no blacksmithing. You can choose between many hammers, but cross-peen and straight-peen hammers are the most common in blacksmithing.
Remember that every hammer has its purpose, so it is not convenient for any job. So, before making a hammer, first, you have to know what you will use it for. Understand your needs before starting.
Factor like skill levels will greatly affect your hammer choice. For example, beginners are most likely to use cross peen or straight peen due to usage simplicity.
Before jumping into a discussion of each steel, we must first understand which factors are important when choosing the ideal steel for making your hammer. The first and most important is heat resistance. How does a material perform at forging temperatures?
The shock resistance of steel is also a very important factor in hammer making. How strong and tough is steel? A hammer with a low toughness is not of much use. Moreover, it can be dangerous to work with. Another factor we have to consider is its wear resistance, meaning how well it holds an edge. Also, how easy heat treating that particular steel is?
You will see that some steels are excellent choices for hammer making, but they require complicated heat treatment and advanced equipment, which often costs a lot.
But after all, it all comes to availability. If the material is not available to you, it doesn’t matter how good it is.
You may hear from someone that some particular steel from Company A is different from the same type of steel from Company B. While there are examples of that, you will probably not notice any difference for our blacksmithing purposes.
Both of them will work just fine, so don’t lose your head about that. If someone does tell you that, it is a “my steel is better than yours “marketing game.
It is actually very simple. Every steel is named using a four-digit number, and each number represents information about various alloying elements, including carbon.
Normally, the first number represents the class of the alloy. For example, 5160 steel’s first number is 5. This number represents alloys that utilize chromium as the main element. Now, the second number represents the concentration of the previously mentioned element.
5160 steel is 1% chromium by mass. The last two numbers represent the amount of carbon. These two last digits label that the steel is 0.XX % carbon. In the case of 5160, this is 0.60% of carbon, making it medium-high carbon steel.
1045 Steel for Making Blacksmithing Hammers
1045 steel is one of our favorites for hammer making. It will work basically for most blacksmithing tools, except for cutting tools. 1045 is medium carbon steel with a tensile strength of 570-700 MPa (megapascal), a reasonable strength for a blacksmithing hammer. The hardness of 1045 ranges between 170 and 210 on a Brinell scale. Again, enough for making a good-quality hammer.
The best thing about this steel is that after it is forged, you can normalize it. After normalizing, you can reheat it again to somewhere between 850-1250 degrees celsius. Also, keep in mind that you should immediately take it out and quench it in water immediately after heating. Make sure that your peen is not too thin as it can crack more easily.
Note that all 10xx series steel, from 1030 to 1095, is considered water-hardening tools steel. That means that you will not obtain full hardness by quenching them in oil. Now, many people quench them in oil, mainly because it is safer.
That way, there is less tendency to crack or have some stress fractures, but this is mostly due to the improper forging technique. For instance, it can be that they didn’t take enough time to anneal the tool properly, or they heated it too quickly.
You can find this type of steel in normalized or black hot-rolled conditions. Regarding its chemical composition, 1045 is primarily composed of iron, which makes up about 99% of all chemical compositions.
After iron, the second largest element found in 1045 is carbon. It takes somewhere between 0.043-0.50%, which is considered a medium carbon content. By providing correct procedures, this steel can also be welded and machined.
We recommend this steel for all beginners as it is “forgiving steel,” meaning it is much easier to heat treat. It does not require any advanced equipment like some of them, like D2 steel. Every hammer I made with 1045 steel served me very well for a long time.
4140 Steel for Making Blacksmithing Hammers
Along with 4340, 4140 is one of the most common steel used for making all sorts of tools, including blacksmithing hammers. Compared to mild steel, 4140 has much greater toughness and strength. It is low alloy steel consisting of chromium, manganese, and molybdenum elements.
Low alloy steels are considered those that rely on other elements rather than just iron and carbon to increase steel properties.
4140 is also very versatile steel. It is made by mixing iron, carbon, and other elements into either electric or oxygen furnaces. Once they are mixed in liquid form, they can cool down. After that, 4140 is usually annealed several times. Then, the steel is heated again to make it into the desired shape.
Chromium and molybdenum are elements that give this steel corrosion resistance effect. Manganese acts as a deoxidizer and provides this steel a good hardenability. 4140 steel has a good strength-to-weight ratio and is harder than standard steel, making it great for creating a blacksmithing hammer.
4140 steel requires more advanced heating schedules compared to 1045 steel. 4140 steel must first be heated to its austenitizing temperature, which is 1570°F (855°C). After heating, you should quench it in oil.
Now, it is time for the tempering process. For 4140 steel, tempering is done at 950-1100°F (480-595°C) to achieve a hardness of around 30 HRC.
It is recommended to temper this steel at a lower temperature. The hardness of fully hardened 4140 ranges from 54 to 59 HRC. It is important to note that it should be tempered for any heavy use.
Most experienced blacksmiths prefer 4140 over the 1045 steel.
We don’t recommend using 4140 for your first hammer if you are a beginner. Many things can go easily wrong during heat treatment with this steel.
5160 Steel for Making Blacksmithing Hammers
When someone says “spring steel,” that person usually refers to 5160 steel. It is a low alloy steel that is incredibly tough and resilient; Therefore, it is an excellent material for making a blacksmithing hammer. 5160 steel presents a high fatigue resistance. It is also known for its high ductility.
While 5160 is not easy to weld or machine, it can be heat-treated and annealed. Like most types of steel, 5160 steel is susceptible to corrosion. The oxygen is simply too strong for the iron molecules forming iron oxide, responsible for newly formed cracks and weak spots in the steel.
While 5160 steel contains chromium, unfortunately, its quantity is insufficient to prevent rusting.
This steel can come in a tube or a bar, depending on the supplier. The good news about 5160 is that you can find it in a scrapyard at very low prices, sometimes even for free.
Every material for making a blacksmithing hammer requires toughness, ductility, and resilience, which makes the 5160 an excellent choice.
5160 steel has been shown to achieve very high toughness with an austenitizing temperature of 1500-1525°F (815-830 °C). The tempering is ideally done somewhere around 375-400 °F (190-204 °C), which results in a hardness of 59 Rc. The quenching is ideally done using oil.
Forging should be done at 2100 -2200°F (1149-1204°C). To properly anneal the 5160 steel, you need to perform it at 1450°F (788°C) and then air cool it.
How Do Alloying Elements Affect Steel Characteristics?
Carbon
Carbon is the most important element in steel composition. It is necessary to form cementite, pearlite, and martensite, which are important micro-structures. Carbon allows us to do a heat-treating process. Simply said, the larger the carbon content is, the harder the steel is. Factors like wear resistance also increase with a big amount of carbon (around 1.5%).
In regards to carbon content, steels are usually divided into three categories:
• Low Carbon Steels: Typically under 0.4%
• Medium Carbon Steels: 0.4 – 0.6%
• High Carbon Steels: 0.7 – 1.5%
For tool-making steels, the lower end of desired carbon content is around 0.6% which falls in the medium carbon steel category. The higher-end is around 1% carbon content, which is considered high carbon steel.
Manganese
Manganese increases the strength of a micro-structure called ferrite, which is important in the heat-treating process. It also decreases the critical quenching speed by increasing the hardness penetration. That way, steel is more stable in the quench. Steels consisting of manganese are usually called “Oil Quenching Oils.”
That is because these types of metals are shown to be more effective in oil than water. You can find manganese in a lot of commercial steels.
Chromium
As manganese, chromium is also known for increasing the hardness of steel. There are some interesting effects that chromium has on steel. For example, when 5% of chromium is used with manganese, the quenching speed is reduced so much that the steel becomes air-hardening. It increases the wear resistance and the toughness of steel, but one of the greatest effects of chromium is that it reduces corrosion.
Any steel which contains 14% or more chromium is considered stainless steel. Regarding heat treatment, chromium also increases the critical temperature of the steel. You can find chromium in tools steels like 4140 and 5160.
Silicon
This element acts as a deoxidizer in steel manufacture. Silicon also increases the strength of ferrite. When used with other elements, it is shown to increase the hardness and toughness of steel.
Copper
Copper’s primary effect on steel is reducing atmospheric corrosion, especially in 0.2-0.5% quantities. If steel contains a large amount of copper, it has detrimental effects on hot-working steel and surface quality. It is also known to affect forge welding negatively.
Nickel
By increasing the strength of ferrite, nickel generally increases the strength of the steel. It is primarily used in low alloy steels to increase hardenability and toughness. It is a very important element for the quenching phase.
Namely, it helps to reduce material distortion and cracking during the quenching process.
Molybdenum
Molybdenum is known for slowing down the critical quenching speed and increasing the hardness of steel. It also increases the tensile strength of a material.
Vanadium
During heat treatment, some elements must control grain growth. That’s where Vanadium comes in. It increases the strength and toughness of the steel by inhibiting grain growth.
Tungsten
Tungsten is also a very important alloying element. It produces high wear resistance with no loss of toughness by combining with the free carbides during the heat-treating process. That is very important because it allows the steel to maintain its hardness at forging temperatures.
Tantalum
While not of great importance to hammer making, it is still good to know what effect tantalum has on steel. Tantalum is used to stabilize other elements in stainless steel.
Titanium
When used with Boron, Titanium helps to increase the hardenability of steel.
Recommended reading:
7 Knife-Making Power Tools for Maximum Productivity
The Definite List of Knife-Making Tools for Beginners
