SociallyIneptBoy

Ok, that's about what I expected. Thanks again for your help.

Thanks for the input guys. The picture that camano posted is of the one I have. You can see the words "C.S. Osborne 66" written on handle if you look closely enough. Osborne advertises it as a leatherworking hammer, and actually has a separate hammer advertised as a "shoe hammer" (the 65), but from what I've seen, given the style of it's head, it's generally accepted as a cobbler's hammer. Here is the link to their hammer section if you want to see what I'm talking about.....http://www.csosborne.com/l-hammers_1.htm I got it for the purpose DavidL mentioned, flattening seams & shaping leather, as well as for closing seams when gluing pieces together. That's why the shape of the striking face is a problem. The main thing I want to do is make small, thin minimalist wallets, so the warped portion would end up striking the table and causing the rest of the hammer to hit at an angle, which would defeat the purpose of using it, and it's almost useless for shaping, since the warped portion would have a substantial chance of digging into the leather and leaving gouges. I'll be getting a poly mallet for hammering punches, chisels, etc... as well. I would have posted a pic last night, but it appears that either the forum software they use here doesn't allow for normal attachment methods or I don't have them enabled yet since I'm new. I'm gonna try a few things after I make this post, but I've got no idea if any of them are going to work. Edit: Ok, I've figured out how it works now. That is one convoluted method of handling attachments. Edit 2: Didn't realize how bad the first pic was. Attached a second, clearer picture.

So I've started gathering tools to get started on leatherworking as a hobby. In the course of doing this, I recently purchased a used Osborne #66 on eBay, the head of which appears to be extremely warped and misshapen to me. The "claw" and mounting portions of the head are not perpendicular to the handle and and almost appears to have been twisted. The striking surface is not remotely symmetrical. Looking at it from the top down, the right-hand side of the striking surface sticks out further to the side than the left and curves forward, while the rest of the surface is mostly flat. Also, the metal between the striking surface and the rest of the head is pinched in quite a bit more on the right than on the left. This thing more or less looks like it's been in a car accident. Am I just so much of a newbie that I don't realize that this how leatherworking hammers are supposed to look, or is my gut right and I just got sold a lemon?

Wow dude. That is some amazing work right there. How did you keep the leather around the edges so flat? From what I've been seeing looking at tutorials, videos, etc... that's supposedly a relatively difficult feat to accomplish.