Cobblers Hammer

One of my hobbies is leather work and I have several leather work projects that I will be doing soon. One leather work tool that I have always wanted was a Cobblers Hammer, aside from looking really cool they are really useful for flattening stitching, folding over edges, wet forming, and many other things. 

I found several nice examples on e bay but they were very expensive. So I decided to buy a beat up one and refinish it. 

I was able to find this Sears and Roebuck, hammer for $12 on ebay. It needs a lot of cleaning up and a new handle. But I figured it would be a fun little project. 

 The face of the hammer had several deep gouges and a lot of marks on it. I would need to smooth it out otherwise it would mar my leather. 

After quite a bit of filing, grinding, sanding, and eventually polishing it was ready to be put back into use. 

Here is the cool old Sears and Roebuck label, I wonder when the Craftsman brand came into place. Think of that I wonder when you could buy a cobblers hammer from Sears? Certainly a different time from the one that we are living in! 

 Now on to the handle, this hammer has a very small eye. I was able to find a ball peen hammer handle that looked pretty good. The eye had to be reduced a little, I seated it very far down on the shoulder, and I decided to take about 1.5 inches off of the length. 

 Here I am installing the wedge.  

 The wedges installed and dressed down.

 A little sanding of the handle and a few coats of boiled linseed oil and this hammer is ready to be put back into service. 

I tend to take really good care of my tools and like to have quality tools. For me I would rather invest a little time and effort into a tool like this than buy a cheap knock off from Amazon. I am sure that this hammer will outlast me. Heck I am sure it has already outlasted its previous owner.