Vendors - Air Hammers
Manufacturers and distributors of pneumatic forging hammers for blacksmiths.
Note that some of the air hammers listed on this page look identical (or nearly so) to each other and it is difficult to determine if some companies are selling the hammers from the same manufacturer or if they only look similar.
Glaser
Gross-Umstadt, Germany. http://www.g-glaser.de/seiten/maschinen/gsh35.htm Made in Germany.
Grule
Frickenhausen, Germany. http://www.gruel-maschinen.de/luftschmiedehammer.htm Made in Germany. Pneumatic forging hammers and tooling for forging hammers.
Kuhn
Manufactured in Augsburg Germany. The manufacturer's website: http://www.kuhn-maschinentechnik.de/luftschmiedehaemmer_de.html.
Available in the USA from Centaur Forge in Burlington, Wisconsin, USA.: http://www.centaurforge.com/.
The information presented on this page for Kuhn air hammers comes from tool catalogs, blacksmith magazines, and reference materials and letters from the manufacturer and Centaur Forge.
New style Kuhn air hammers (K/CF22, K/CF40, K/CF50, etc.)
These are the new style hammers currently being produced by Kuhn.
The north American distributor for the newer style Kuhn air hammers is Centaur Forge. The page scan at left is from the 2003 Centaur catalog. This hammer appears to use no oil. This was a very new design that was made possible by advancement in air pump technology that was not available in the 1960s and 1970s when the earlier models were designed. I have no other information on this new style hammer and have not had the opportunity to see one of these hammers operating.
Centaur Forge is the north American distributor for the new Kuhn K/CF style hammers.
Go to the Centaur Forge website to see more on these hammers. http://www.centaurforge.com/
Sahinler
Brian Russell Designs - Memphis, Tennessee, USA. http://www.powerhammers.com/ Manufactured in Turkey.
Pieh Tool Company - Camp Verde, Arizona, USA. http://www.piehtoolco.com/ Manufactured in Turkey. This is a large website and they offer a large variety of blacksmithing tools and horseshoeing tools and books on their website. CLASSES OFFERED! The owner of Pieh Tool Company offers blacksmithing classes.
Reliant Engineers, ltd
London, U.K. http://www.reliant-eng.com/ Sahinler Air Hammers? I have no other information on this vendor at this time. See their website.
Stadler Machine
Strasswalchen, Austria. http://meineseite.i-one.at/maschinen.stadler/eng/lufthammer.htm Made in Austria.
Striker Tool Company
Sacramento, California, USA. Striker/Shanxi Air Hammers. http://www.strikertools.com/ Made in China.
Original
Equipment Manufacture (OEM) - NOT like other Chinese made hammers,
Striker Tool Company has made large improvements to these hammers
including heavier anvils, heavier and more robust frames, larger open
die gap for taller tooling, higher quality manufacturing standards for
longer life and the same great dependability that blacksmiths come to
expect from this manufacturer's European competitors. Striker Tool
hammers are made with far more quality control than their competitors
hammers in the same class- compare a Striker side by side with an Anyang
and see the difference! These hammers have a reputation for excellent
construction and trouble-free service.
To see more photos of the Striker STC-88 hammer that I use in my shop, click this link: http://www.beautifuliron.com/gs_stc-88_air_hammer.htm .
Striker Tool Company has a large lineup of air hammers in different sizes along with other tools and equipment, see their website at: http://www.strikertools.com At left are the pages of the most recent sale flyer from Striker Tools. If I were to guess which of these hammers are the most popular as far as number of sales per unit, I would guess that it is the 55 and 88 pound hammers. Striker offers a cast base for these two models.
Vaughns
West Midlands, U.K. http://www.anvils.co.uk/ Air hammers made in U.K.? Sahinler hammers made in Turkey? I have no accurate information on this source or manufacture. See their website.
Anyang
Forging hammers made in China, http://www.chinesehammers.com/ .
Sino-Texas Imports, http://www.sino-texasimports.net/ ,
Warning! There are important reasons for listing Anyang last on this page. Anyang has numerous problems. One of the most serious problems is their hammer rams becoming stuck or jammed in the cylinder. I first heard about this problem a few years ago while speaking with a former Anyang hammer salesman. He told me that he had given up on selling Anyang hammers because they had so many problems and refused to work with the distributor to solve them. These problems included valves improperly set up/balanced, and rams becoming jammed in the cylinders. Today the jammed rams are so common with Anyang hammers, distributors often recommend owners 'warm up' their hammers for long periods of time to try to loosen up the cylinders before beginning work. Anyang hammer owners also complain of valve problems and overheating problems (possibly caused by poor cylinder/ram fit). Recent photos of Anyang hammers at an ABANA chapter blacksmithing conference show discovered voids in the frame that began leaking oil after the paint and filler that had hidden the voids began to loosen up. Some photos showed a large tapered or tilted gap (die surfaces not parallel) between top and bottom die caused by improper and inaccurate machining, and another photo showed cracks developing in the frame. One of the Anyang hammers used at the ABANA chapter conference had its ram become stuck or seized in the cylinder during operation/demonstration. The emails are coming in! Recently I began receiving emails from Anyang owners asking for recommendations on repairing their new Anyang hammers. If they had bought another brand of hammer then they wouldn't be having problems. The only reason I bother to provide links to this manufacturer is because so many blacksmiths have heard of them both on the internet and at blacksmith shows where Anyang's distributors offer live demonstrations of their hammers. No other brand of hammer has so many angry customers or complaints!
Some problems can be avoided by buying these hammers through a distributor like the one listed above. The distributors in the U.S. work hard to try to solved the problems described above, but they are not immune to Anyang's games. I know of at least one distributor in the United States who got stuck with a container load of Anyang hammers that didn't work. Buy through a distributor and let them take care of it. Also be aware that some distributors in other countries do a very poor job of setting up their hammers and instructing new owners on set up and operation of new hammers. One salesman in particular (from Europe) seems to spend a lot of time on internet forums recommending improper and damaging modifications to their hammers, and making bogus and misleading comparisons between his Anyang hammers and the hammers sold by his competitors. Modifying an air hammer should be avoided. Any and all changes can have unexpected consequences resulting in diminished performance, damage to the machine, or injury to the hammer operator.
Anyang is a spammer/phishing scammer, and for more than 9 years now, I have been spammed repeatedly by Anyang, their Nigerian phishing scam buddies, and illegal drug pushers and credit card scammers. Anyang harvests email addresses of blacksmiths and trades or sells them to known thieves and scammers. Some of Anyang's friends like to load email accounts with gigantic slow loading picture files and all of them load emails with picture files that are designed to track receipt of their spam. Want to see some examples of some of the many credit card phishing scams and "419 Nigerian spams" that I have received from Anyang and their friends? Follow this link: http://www.beautifuliron.com/heresy&_anyang_spammer.htm .
To summarize, Anyang sucks. That is why they get listed dead last on this page.
Page last updated on June 21, 2008.
There are more hammers and manufacturers and distributors to add to this page but I do not have time to find them all.
Page created April 16, 2006.