Beryllium? Hammer

[GraemeVW]

Another recent purchase turned up today.
2lb ball pein hammer. I assume this is beryllium. Sometimes called beryllium copper, sometimes called beryllium bronze.
Is that what the BB refers to?
It's not brass, and it's not normal copper.

Excuse the underside and badly fitted handle, that will get replaced.

I believe this kind of thing is still available so no idea what the age of this may be.
Searching the numbers brings nothing up.

 

[Erie Fred]

Looks like a sparkproof hammer

 

[GraemeVW]

Looks like a sparkproof hammer

It is

Having searched spark proof stuff though, I'm not sure if it's all beryllium or if some of it is brass.

 

[Erie Fred]

Ampco is a maker of the alloys, might poke around using that name.

Learn more about Materion

Learn about Materion's beryllium products.

beryllium.com

 

[tom2207]

beryllium is very lightweight ,, and grey but brittle
so it could be in the alloy ,
who knows , but it is a thing of great beauty ,,, it would polish well and with a nice oiled ash handle nicely fitted and wedged it would nearly be too nice to use.

 

[mike os]

Probably beryllium copper .. going on the colour...

If it needs the face dressing don't grind it

Don't do anything with it that creates dust ... beryllium is particularly bad for you

 

[optima21]

dont think it would be beryllium as is a very expensive (classed as being semi precious) metal, and is more likely to be phosphor bronze if its designed to be non sparking. also Beryllium is toxic, so you need to be careful when handling it.

 

[GraemeVW]

beryllium is very lightweight ,, and grey but brittle
so it could be in the alloy ,
who knows , but it is a thing of great beauty ,,, it would polish well and with a nice oiled ash handle nicely fitted and wedged it would nearly be too nice to use.

I believe these kinds of tools are just revered to as beryllium even though, as you say, it's an alloy. It's copper with a small amount of beryllium and is called beryllium copper, or beryllium bronze.

I'll order a new handle, probably blacked it with fire and oil it.

I'll probably try and beat out some of the dents and then it will go in the hammer draw.

I figured it would be good when I want something harder than copper but softer than steel. Maybe knocking in bearing races etc.

 

[GraemeVW]

Probably beryllium copper .. going on the colour...

If it needs the face dressing don't grind it

Don't do anything with it that creates dust ... beryllium is particularly bad for you

I've read this.
I'm not sure if that is only really referring to actual beryllium though, rather than alloys that contain some.

But I don't really want to remove any material. I'll try and hammer out as many marks as I can.

Would be quite nice to get a dull blasted finish on it then 're dress and polish the smooth surfaces.

In reality, I'll probably just put a handle on it and leave it be.

 

[GraemeVW]

dont think it would be beryllium as is a very expensive (classed as being semi precious) metal, and is more likely to be phosphor bronze if its designed to be non sparking. also Beryllium is toxic, so you need to be careful when handling it.

When I say beryllium, I mean an alloy with it.
It's apparantly not toxic to touch, just dust inhalation that's a problem.

 

[mike os]

Beryllium makes the copper harder and stronger ... it's a low % but still not what you want to be breathing

Screwdrivers etc are really fun ... and you really try to make them last

 

[daleyd]

Probably beryllium copper .. going on the colour...

If it needs the face dressing don't grind it

Don't do anything with it that creates dust ... beryllium is particularly bad for you

+1 for this as you already know - ISTR in the military anything with beryllium in it (Usually electronics stuff) was treated the same way as radioactive valves etc, with proper disposal procedures if there was a breakage or possible contamination.

 

[Seadog]

I used to work at Plessey. We were developing comms gear for the forces using new-fangled power transistors, which had beryllium in the ceramics used. The danger of broken ceramic was often pointed out. Prior to that, the high power RF valves used in transmitters also had the same composition, as did early magnetrons used in microwave cookers.

 

[mike os]

In use the risk is extremely low, as long as you don't make dust and inhale or ingest it

 

[Agroshield]

The number stamped on it could be part of the previous owner's tool control process. The kinds of environment that necessitate that sort of tool might want to log the tools out at the start of work and log them back in at the end, much as they do with aircraft maintenance.

 

[gordon stephenson]

Non spark hammer, we had a full set, chisels, spanners etc, used when working on blowers and duct work containing fine titanium powder,

 

[voipio]

Interestingly, we all have some beryllium inisde us, from natural exposure, apparently! The average amount of beryllium in the human body is 35 micrograms, and this level is not considered sufficient to be toxic. I always thought beryllium oxide was the nastiest form of beryllium, and used in high power semiconductor devices because of its high thermal conductivity.

 

[Shox Dr]

Thanks for the heads up on the Toxic properties. I have a few spanners I was going to open up to metric sizes.

 

[frank horton]

have u seen the price of Beryllium washers......!!!!!!! eek.....

 

[Seadog]

Thanks for the heads up on the Toxic properties. I have a few spanners I was going to open up to metric sizes.

If you machine them it's probably not an issue. It's the fine particulates that are the problem.