Planishing Hammer
Planishing Hammer
The smooth-faced silversmith's hammer that compresses raised metal to a refined surface
A planishing hammer is a hammer with a broad, smooth, slightly domed or flat face used in silversmithing and goldsmithing to refine the surfaces of forged or raised metal. The hammer's face compresses the metal under controlled blows, removing the marks left by forming tools, work-hardening the surface, and producing the smooth or subtly faceted finish characteristic of well-finished hand-raised work. The planishing hammer is a foundational tool of any silversmithing workshop and exists in a range of weights and face geometries matched to specific applications.
Form and weight
Planishing hammers vary in face geometry — flat, slightly domed, more strongly domed, or specifically shaped for particular applications — and in head weight, with smaller jewellery hammers in the 100-to-200-gram range and silversmithing hammers ranging from 250 grams up to 500 grams or more for heavy hollow-ware. The handle is traditionally made of ash, hickory, or carpinus, shaped for comfortable grip and balanced to the head weight. Some specialty hammers have asymmetric faces — one face flat for general planishing, the other domed for textured finish work — to allow the smith to switch between operations without reaching for a different tool.
The faces of well-made planishing hammers are highly polished. Any irregularity, tool mark, or pit in the hammer's face will be transferred to the workpiece on each blow, producing a defect that subsequent operations may not be able to remove. Maintaining the polish of a planishing hammer's face is therefore a routine part of workshop housekeeping, with re-polishing typically performed when the face's mirror finish has degraded sufficiently to be visible on the work.
Use
The planishing hammer is used after the major forming operations — raising, sinking, repoussé — have established the workpiece's geometry. The workpiece is mounted on an appropriate stake, anvil, or sandbag and the hammer is brought to bear with controlled, overlapping blows that walk progressively across the surface. Each blow compresses a small region of the metal slightly, smoothing the surface and bringing it into closer alignment with the intended form. Successful technique requires consistent striking force, careful control of the angle of impact, and overlap of successive blows so that no region of the surface is left unworked.
The planishing hammer also has a structural effect on the workpiece. The cumulative compression work-hardens the metal, increasing its hardness and stiffness, which is essential to the rigidity of thin-walled hollow-ware. Repeated annealing during the forming sequence keeps the metal workable; planishing at the end of the sequence locks in the final hardness.
Distinguishing from related hammers
The planishing hammer is one of several silversmithing hammer types, each with its own application. Raising hammers — with narrower, more strongly curved faces — are used to drive the metal in the early forming stages of hollow-ware production; forming hammers, with shaped faces matched to specific stake profiles, are used in intermediate forming work; and chasing hammers, with weighted heads designed for repeated controlled strikes against chasing punches, are used in surface decoration. Within this hierarchy the planishing hammer occupies a specific role at the end of the forming sequence, refining the surfaces produced by the earlier operations.
In the trade
Planishing hammers from the major maker traditions — the German Peddinghaus tools, the American Fretz line, the older English and Continental European makers — are working tools in silversmithing studios across the world. The cost of a quality planishing hammer is modest relative to the working life it provides; properly maintained tools remain in service for decades. The trade in vintage silversmithing hammers, including planishing hammers from named nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century makers, is a recognisable secondary market, with prices reflecting both the working desirability of the tools and their age and provenance. Modern training programmes at the Goldsmiths' Centre, the major American craft schools, and similar institutions equip students with planishing hammers as part of the basic foundational tool kit.