Blechhammer (production facility)

Broad hammer and smith fire of the Saigerhütte Grünthal

Three tail hammers of the Freibergsdorf hammer

A sheet metal hammer is a late medieval (from the 14th century) to modern iron hammer for the production of sheet metal . Before the development of rolling technology, the sheets were manufactured using a complex forging process. Deuchel was mainly used as the starting material, later iron ore was also used. Often slag or sinter was added to iron ore, i.e. the hammer blow (the layer that springs off the red-hot iron during forging). That was always done where Deuchel was scarce or expensive. For the melting of these materials, however, larger amounts of charcoal were required, so the process could only be used in wooded areas.

In the Upper Palatinate sheet metal hammers, fine and base sheets (“thin iron” and “thick iron”) were produced. The sheets were standardized. Of the thinner variety, 210 sheets were allowed to be produced on one Amberg hundredweight (= 61 kg), the other 120 sheets. The sheets measured approximately 24 × 32 cm. The thin iron (= lintel plate) was 0.5 mm thick, the thick iron (= also called floor plate) 0.9 mm. However, too small or perforated sheets were also sold.

The sheets came on the market as black sheets or they were tinned and sold as tin sheets . When the Amberger Zinnblechhandelsgesellschaft was founded in 1533, the tin hammers in the Upper Palatinate were forced to sell their products to them and had to let them determine the prices.

Examples of early tin hammers

Depending on the economic circumstances, iron hammers were founded as sheet metal hammers or they developed from rail hammers . There are also examples where both a sheet metal hammer and a rail hammer were operated in a plant. Between 1527 and 1560 there were around 38 sheet metal hammers in the Upper Palatinate , in 1579/80 there were still 36.

The Hammer Beilnstein was a tin hammer from its foundation in 1584.

The tin mill (Kirchenthumbach) was a tin hammer in the vicinity of Kirchenthumbach .

The Eisenhammer Schellhopfen was a tin hammer from its foundation in 1387 until its end.

There was a tin hammer near Kallmünz in Rohrbach .
The Laaber hammer mill was first a rail hammer and was converted into a sheet metal hammer at the beginning of the 17th century.
The Lauf hammer mill consisted of both a rail hammer and a sheet metal hammer.
In 1478 both a sheet metal and a rail hammer were located in the Leidersdorf hammer mill .

literature

Voith, Ignaz Edler from: The royal mining and steelworks office Bodenwöhr. Historical Association for Upper Palatinate and Regensburg , 1840, pp. 17–422

Individual evidence

^ Franz Michael Ress: History and economic importance of the Upper Palatinate iron industry from the beginning to the time of the 30 Years War. Negotiations of the Historical Association of Upper Palatinate and Regensburg , Volume 91, 1950, pp. 5–186
↑ Werner Rother (2006): Mining and processing of iron ore in Sulzbach and Amberg . Fernuniversität Hagen: European mining around 1500, p. 20 f.
^ Götschmann, Dirk: Upper Palatinate iron. Mining and iron industry in the 16th and 17th centuries. Ed. Association of Friends and Patrons of the Mining and Industry Museum East Bavaria (= Volume 5 of the series of publications by the Mining and Industry Museum East Bavaria), Theuern 1985, pp. 76–82. ISBN 3 924 350 05 1

[1] Franz Michael Ress: History and economic importance of the Upper Palatinate iron industry from the beginning to the time of the 30 Years War. Negotiations of the Historical Association of Upper Palatinate and Regensburg , Volume 91, 1950, pp. 5–186

[2] Werner Rother (2006): Mining and processing of iron ore in Sulzbach and Amberg . Fernuniversität Hagen: European mining around 1500, p. 20 f.

[3] Götschmann, Dirk: Upper Palatinate iron. Mining and iron industry in the 16th and 17th centuries. Ed. Association of Friends and Patrons of the Mining and Industry Museum East Bavaria (= Volume 5 of the series of publications by the Mining and Industry Museum East Bavaria), Theuern 1985, pp. 76–82. ISBN 3 924 350 05 1