This is one of the smallest cobblers hammers I have seen, with the diameter of the face just about 1 inch. Most of the bright finish is still intact and the head neatly repaired with three distinctively shaped tacks. The handle is elegantly slender, reminding me of a chasing hammer handle that smiths use. The hammer is stamped “C. HAMMOND / PHILADA / 0”, with the Hammond logo running straight across, rather than curved as pictured in the catalog below. Perhaps this is an earlier style of logo stamping?
This hammer weighs 7.7 oz. with the handle, however the “0” size listed in the catalog below weights 11 oz., and the “000” 7 oz., (without the handle) which may contradict my theory, that very generally speaking, hand tools tend to get smaller over time. “Dinkification” is the technical term for this evolution.
I’ve written about C. Hammond bookbinding hammers before, and also have a rather beat up size 3. Recently, for the first time in 2 decades of collecting, I’ve found a number of signed and numbered cobbler’s hammers– could these be an indication of the current disappearance and dispersal of professional shoe repair shops and their tools?
Catalog image courtesy of Gary Roberts of Toolemera Press, who has posted a PDF of a 1910 C. Hammond & Son trade catalog on his website.
Peachey Conservation 