I am more comfortable when I sit more upright and do not hunch over my pitch while chasing. For chasing, your work surface should be at chest level which requires the proper chair height and work table. Move your wrist in action with the hammer usage. Don’t hold the handle with a death grip as that will not only fatigue your hand and arm, but will result in your body absorbing some of the ‘shock waves’ from the hammer blows. I will say that when you have a quality hammer, like the ones Saign produces, they do help you to develop the correct hammering action. I try to hammer every day, but that is not always possible with my schedule. Practice is the key to success with anything. At the end of the workshop with Fabrizio, he told me to keep hammering. This hammering technique is one best learned in a workshop or by watching videos put together by people like Saign or Fabrizio.Īs with any tool, proper grip and technique are imperative for achieving the desired result. Trust me, you want the hammer to do the work, not your body. This helps to prevent injuries that can occur with repetitive use of the hammers in metalwork. The design of the handle and the wood Saign uses is such that it allows for the correct movement/action when hammering. You can find a variety of Saign’s hammers, chasing tools and tutorials on his website,. You may think it is too beautiful to use, but that definitely isn’t the case. Higher quality Osage orange wood for the handle. My indulgence in a great, quality chasing hammer came with my purchase of this one from Saign Charlestein, owner of SC Studios LLC. Wrap your fingers around the bulbous handle with a gentle grip.ĭrum roll please. Place the ‘bulb’ end in the palm of your hand. Not too tight, a nice gentle and relaxed grasp. It reminds me of instructions I received when playing tennis grip the handle like you are going to shake hands with it. That is designed for comfort and to help with how you grip the handle. You’ve probably noticed that all these pictured have a bulbous end. One thing you will find with the less expensive chasing hammers is the quality of wood used isn’t as nice, they are not as well balanced for hammering and the handle shapes are not as well defined. Pictured below is another chasing hammer I purchased through Thunderbird Supply during one of their overstock sales. The handle needs a bit of smoothing and a tip from the workshop was you can use the edge of a piece of glass to gently smooth the handle. It came from Allcraft and is a solid hammer with many years of service in its future. This is the first chasing hammer I purchased when I began metalsmithing. The reason I have a number of the less expensive hammers is because they are a good all around hammer for working with stamps, punches, dapping blocks and forging metal, like creating the frames for my Treescape pieces. I have a variety of econmonical chasing hammers ranging from $15 – $30 is cost per hammer I also have some high end, quality chasing hammers that I will discuss toward the end of this post. Now I will never give this hammer up for many reasons, but it is no longer my hammer of choice when doing Chasing and Repousse. Fabrizio fixed it with the well placed insertion of a nail as shown in the photo below. One thing that happened during the 5 day workshop with Fabrizio is the head of this hammer became loose with use. It certainly is not a high end, quality chasing hammer, but it does the job and is great for getting a feel for the technique of chasing and repousse. This picture shows the differences between a flat face and rounded. I have discovered that I actually prefer a flat face because it gives me better striking surface. This is the hammer that came in our kits. It had that wonderful aged look from use and care. I’m pretty sure the chasing hammer Fabrizio was using was one that had been handed down for generations. It was a great experience and ignited a passion within me for this technique. Last summer, I had what I considered to be a once in a lifetime opportunity to learn Chasing and Repousse from Il Maestro Fabrizio Acquafresca. There are A LOT of chasing hammer manufacturers and I certainly cannot give a comprehensive assessment, however, I can provide my insights and opinions on the ones I have and use. For this one, I would like to share my experiences with Chasing Hammers. I am officially resuming my Talkin’ Tools segment.
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