Forged Cross-Peen Hammer

Smiths make their own hammers. A bar of high-carbon steel is punched through hot for the eye, the eye is opened to shape with a drift, one end is drawn into a peen, and the head is cut off the bar. It is hardened all over, then tempered by heat run from the middle: the eye and cheeks are left soft (blue) so they do not crack, the faces harder (straw) so they do not dent. The handle is riven ash or hickory, wedged into the eye.