My favorite hammergun circa 1890 came to me more than 25years ago with a left hammer repair to its nose (you could see a weld line). It held up through a lot of shooting over the years. About 2 years ago the repair suddenly failed with the nose flying off into space and never recovered. The craftsman who repaired it, in his words, dripped weld onto the hammer to create a new nose, then shaped it and engraved it to match. That repair lasted about a year when I noticed a crack developing along the repair line. A new repair consisting of filing to the bottom of the crack and laser welding the void is being done.
When the first failure occurred, I could see that the metal structure of the hammer was very coarse and crystalline in appearance. It reminded me of how the broken pot metal of my cap gun looked when I was a kid. My question is what can be done (if anything) to rearrange the metal structure so that it will be strong again and not fail in the future? Would soaking the hammer at high heat for a period of time allow the metal structure to rearrange itself to a more stable form? What should be the final hardness target for the hammer? I assume that the unaffected right hammer might be in the same shape internally and benefit from a similar treatment if there is one.
I appreciate any ideas members might have.
Thanks in advance.
Wally
