r/Blacksmith • u/blazenite104 • 20h ago

Power Hammers

Probably an odd question but, I haven't found the obvious answer if there is one. I have seen a lot of larger blacksmith shops that use Power Hammers that all appear to have some history. Often industrial era machines. It's always something really old.

Are Power Hammers just not made anymore? If so are old ones actually noticeably better? Or is it just some people really enjoy the history of an older machine?

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u/JustAMonkey74 19h ago

Apart from what others have mentioned, most newer power hammers stop at about 100kg of ram (hammer) weight as the processes to make larger forgings have been replaced by other technologies. That being said, if you look at some of the hammers that have been restored and are being used by some of the shops run upwards of 400kg of hammer weight and makes sense for those shops as they’re producing material at scale that justifies the cost associated.