Unusual Hammer

[RedMF40]

Trying to figure out this hammer. Friend who's moving gave it to me. She doesn't know what it is either. Maybe something a shoemaker would use? The pins on the removable insert would spell "IL" if you wanted to believe they were letters. Any ideas?

 

[Steve in VA]

View attachment 6598View attachment 6599Trying to figure out this hammer. Friend who's moving gave it to me. She doesn't know what it is either. Maybe something a shoemaker would use? The pins on the removable insert would spell "IL" if you wanted to believe they were letters. Any ideas?

I'm guessing it's a marking hammer for logs. Interchangeable heads for different tracts. Guessing.

 

[moresmoke]

I'm guessing it's a marking hammer for logs. Interchangeable heads for different tracts. Guessing.

That was my thought also.

 

[Tony in SD]

X3

 

[Mad Farmer]

Marking hammer for sure. Striking face is removable as it's attached by a dovetail.

What it was marking?

 

[Mike Fitz]

It seems like I remember something like those to mark hogs at the packing plant.

 

[stevieb49829]

We called them branding hammers, to put a particular brand on the end of a log before it went down the road, as others have suggested. US Forest Service timber was required to be branded before it left the logging site. Other entities probably used the same methods to identify their logs.

 

[used red MN]

It seems like I remember something like those to mark hogs at the packing plant.

My Uncle and father were involved with operating a NFO hog and cattle “collection point” in my early teens I would help moving the livestock through from the unload pens over the scale and into the holding pens. The farmers who had the most quality and uniform fat hogs would place them on the “grade and yield” program. If they proved to have acceptable quality meat they would get additional money. For this the hogs were required to be marked with a “tattooed” number. The numbers were tattooed with a hammer looking tool that looked similar to this. It had changeable numbers made up of 1/4” long or so sharp pin points. As they ran off the scale I would tattoo their back quarter with that, occasionally re-inking it by smacking an ink pad in my other hand. Seems like the ID it was a letter and 3 numbers.

 

[RedMF40]

My Uncle and father were involved with operating a NFO hog and cattle “collection point” in my early teens I would help moving the livestock through from the unload pens over the scale and into the holding pens. The farmers who had the most quality and uniform fat hogs would place them on the “grade and yield” program. If they proved to have acceptable quality meat they would get additional money. For this the hogs were required to be marked with a “tattooed” number. The numbers were tattooed with a hammer looking tool that looked similar to this. It had changeable numbers made up of 1/4” long or so sharp pin points. As they ran off the scale I would tattoo their back quarter with that, occasionally re-inking it by smacking an ink pad in my other hand. Seems like the ID it was a letter and 3 numbers.

That seems likely. The hammer is very small and the marks no bigger than 1/4." No one would see that on the end of a log. Bigger hammer, yes, but not this one.

 

[used red MN]

That seems likely. The hammer is very small and the marks no bigger than 1/4." No one would see that on the end of a log. Bigger hammer, yes, but not this one.

They refer to it as slapper. The one I used had a wooden handle like shown in the first of the video.
Livestock marker
ID digits

 

[Fixingfarmer]

They still use something like that for hogs although it has a a roller mechanism like a librarian has for a stamp. I suppose doesn’t matter what you are stamping