Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1882-11-06
coKcsRsIsG HAMMERS.

10 most persons q hammer ia simply a
hammer, but every mechanic knows that
there Is great variety of hammers, from
the tiny lump of steel with which the
matchmaker taps the mandrel of a balance
wheel to the huge trip-hammer under
which tons of hot iron are nodded into
shape. The hammer, in fact, plays an i'm.
portant part in the mechanic arts, each one
presenting its peculiar form, size, weight
and material. In some trades there is great
skill and dexterity required in the use of the
hammer. Any one who has seen the opera
ton of riveting a boiler has admired the
sleight of hand with which the strikers
round up the head of rivet in less time
than it takes to write about it. The blows
follow one another with wonderful accu-
racy and rapidity, and when the rivet head
is finished it looks as smooth and regular
as if it had been cast in a FURNISHED mold
Take even the process of driving an ordi-
nary nail, and it is remarkable what diff.
ference there is in the method of a novice
and that of carpenter. The one hits one
side, often bends or breaks the nail or
bruises the finger that holds it. The car.
penter hits with precision, and drives the
nail home with well-directed blows.
The deft hammering of coppersmiths is
proverbial. pounding metal into any re-
quired shape. The copper plates that are
used by engravers are hammered hard in
long strips by the use of large steel ham.
mers with faces as smooth as that of a mir
ror. The most accurate hitting is re.
quired in this process, because the hammer
face is fiat and must be held perfectly
level to avoid cutting deep gashes in the
plates. When it is necessary to make
bevels on these plates skilled workman
will make bevel with hammer in few
minutes that would require hours if made
by filing and polishing.
Silversmiths learn to be very expert in
the use of the hammer. Spectacle makers
can take the temples of a pair of ladies'
spectacles and temper them by dexterous
planishipg between hammer and anvil. A
blacksmith always has an assortment of
hammers with which to shape the ductile
iron.
File cutters are required to use hammers
with great judgment. Each tooth in a
handmade file is made by the burr raised
by tapping sharp chisel held to the soft
file. After each blow the chisel is eet up
against the burr of the last stroke and an.
other burr is raised, and SO on until the file
is finished. The force of the blow measures
the size of the burr raised, go that the reg
ularity of the file depends upon the even
ness of the hammer stroke. Many files are
made by transferring processes by machine
| ry, but the handmade files command the
highest price, while with many peculiar
forms of files the hand work is indispensa.
BILE, and the regularity Of hammer work a
necessity.
One of the most difficult jobs to be done
with hammer is to straighten large flat
plates of metal. An expert workman will
here do, with few strokes of the hammer
properly directed, work that a non. expert
cannot do at all. Indeed, without great
skill the attempt to straighten plates with
hammer generally results in making the
crookedness worse.
The goldbeater's hammer is welded day
by day by trained hands, although an hour
OF it would fatigue the novice. The calker
has peculiar long hammer. The AK and
the adze are but sharpened hammers. Ma.
chinists use great copper hammers for
work where they wish to strike blows
without marring the object struck.
Among the queerest hammers in use is a
magnetic hammer. There was once a
Yankee peddler who used one of these to
great advantage. He was peddlins a
fancy soap. He would go into stSre,
pull out his advertising card, (" Buy
my unequaled SOAP" and bebre
the astonished storekeeper could ire.
monstrate he would tack up one of his
cards on rafter or wall where. it
could not be takeln6aIn wishort a
step.ladder. The wy he did it was
to hold up his card to the re-
quired spot with one outstretched afro,
standing on tiptoe. de had magne7ized
hammer with lozg handle, and in his
mouth few tacH. He put one tack on
the hammer, pint outward, and with one
tap sunk it ixto the required place to Sc
cure his I'D out of reach. Recently, in
South Brooklyn, tall bill. poster pursued
this plan of posting advertisement cards
on telegraph poles so high that it required
the line men to climb up the poles 10 get
| the cards down.