The hand hammer is the tool that defines the smith. The first photograph is taken from an archeological grave find of a Viking smith. The heads of his hammers have a very particular form as regards to a European form meets function tool. My hand hammer is styled on a hammer my grandfather used. It has a slightly off centered handle with a peen side and hammer head which is slightly concave. Headweight is 800 grams made of 1:3505 ball bearing steel, differentially hardened (this means that is has a hard face and a hard peen and is soft in the middle). The hammer is perfectly balanced to bounce without shifting to left and right. The hammer has to be perfectly balanced so it will sit on the long handle, the long handle enables every kind of blow from super light to bone crunchingly heavy. The addition of a collar at the junction of the head to the handle, significantly increases the handle's ability to deliver the different types of blows used in bladesmithing. It also protects against miss hits which sheer hammer heads from handles.

I am a European smith, so I use a European hammer. There is one photograph of three Japanese hammers that I made during my apprenticeship in Japan. I can honestly say these hammers are useless for a European to use. A tool that is developed for the use by smaller and weaker people and are vastly overrated for use by Europeans. Lastly there is a picture of a rawhide mallet. This is a very useful mallet for moving hot steel without damaging the surface. You also get a nice smell of burnt hide in your forge after using it.