Hello fellow forum members,

I have what appears to be an offset Hump Back Hammer Not a King's marked piece, but perhaps factory? The only markings are on the rounded section of back of hammer where stamped is Reg. U.S. Pat. Off. What do I have? What frame does this hammer fit? N frame? Possibly for a Registered Magnum? Finally what is this worth? TIA.

Attached Images

	PXL_20240316_221816853.MP.jpg (30.4 KB, 162 views)
	PXL_20240316_221800957.jpg (52.1 KB, 164 views)
	PXL_20240316_221742795.MP.jpg (47.2 KB, 158 views)
	PXL_20240316_221720363.jpg (71.8 KB, 158 views)

My only comment is that some of the machining looks rough, not really up to S&W quality...Other than that, I'm like Sergeant Schultz and I know nothing, nothing!......Ben

__________________
Cogito, ergo BOOM!...

It's not factory.

__________________
John 3:16
WAR EAGLE!

It might not have even started life as a humpback hammer. It’s just one of hundreds of one-off modified gun parts from someone’s garage.

The patent is for the original S&W color case hardening process. The stamping ended before the end of WWII.

The notch on the face of the hammer may indicate it was modified to work with a post war sliding bar hammer block safety.

__________________
Jim
S&WCA #819

Target hammer w/one side ground off.
Maybe.

bdGreen

Thanks for all the replies so far, so from the above statements can I infer that this hammer may have started on a model 1917 or pre-war gun? Sorry I didn't clean it up better for preparation of pictures as I was kind of excited that I may have something special.
Also the notch on the face of the hammer that you mention, does this mean that it will only work on a post war short action now? Sorry for so many questions but I don't disassemble or tinker with my guns and it's a continual learning process.

The King Cockeyed Hammer (and the later copy from Micro) started life as a regular factory hammer. Given the desire for the "cockeyed" feature (offset spur--to the left, right, or both), one simply sent the hammer off (along with $5 in the case of King) to the vendor, where the factory hammer had its spur ground off and the "Cockeyed" replacement welded in place, with the case hardening redone. The resultant product (from King) varied in workmanship from absolutely flawless to bush league. One could send the whole gun, where King would tend to the disassembly/reassembly at an additional charge. Given the desire for a similar product from S&W, the charge was $1 (in the early 30's at least), and presumably was applicable to an ordered gun. (This from Jinks in a letter on a .22 Outdoorsman.)

As an aside, your hammer does not appear to be of the "Humpback" variety. I have no idea what it is.

As another aside, I don't know enough about the geometry of the long/short actions to even began to be able to describe the differences---only to note there was the pre-war long, the post-war short, and the post-war shorter yet (by 24 percent on the SAO K-38). That leaves the short action on the pre-war 22/40 which I never thought to measure when I could.

Ralph Tremaine

And as yet another aside, the original name of the Single Action Only K-38 was Short Action Single Action K-38---which told the whole story. I have no idea why the rather important part of that name came to be omitted in later years.

Ralph, Thank You for the very concise answer and for taking the time to share your knowledge and information with us. I always look forward to your response on any given subject as they inevitably are pearls of wisdom

This is obviously a pre-war long action hammer. Wide factory target hammers were only produced for post-war short actions.

I've owned several standard style cockeyed hammers of various quality from King's or shop-made. Never seen it done to a humpback. Interesting.

__________________
Chris
SWCA #2243 SWHF #292

The lower portion of the hammer has been skeletonized to reduce weight and quicken the action.

__________________
Jim
S&WCA #819

The toe where the SA notch is located has also been altered- probably into a short action SAO affair.

__________________
Regards,
Lee Jarrett