Design of carbine hammers ...

[CrossedCannons]

Fooling around with the part in a CAD program, it just struck me ...

Why was the channel cut in the left hand side of carbine hammers, first in a diagonal orientation relative its firing pin striking surface, and later nearly orthogonal to it?

There must have been a reason for incorporating it into the drawings, and the extra machining required to produce it.

Information

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[BrianQ]

Weight

[CrossedCannons]

What is the problem with a "heavy" hammer?

[Garandrew]

From my reading, it was just to lighten the weight of the weapon in any way possible...

[CrossedCannons]

From my reading, it was just to lighten the weight of the weapon in any way possible...

Thanks but if that was the reason, why not widen the channel further to remove a couple more grams?

[BrianQ]

Perhaps the designers knew the hammer had to retain enough mass to overcome the inertia necessary to reliably force the firing pin into the primer.

[DaveHH]

to speed up lock time. In other words, it gets into the primer in less time if it is lighter. But as pointed out by BQ, it must be heavy enough to be 100% reliable when it does fall. There may be a trigger pull lightening as well with a lighter hammer, don't know for sure.

[CrossedCannons]

Thanks guys.

Interestingly, pile drivers of different weights (but equal energy) will produce different results.
Piles Engineering

I found a good explanation of how minimum hammer weight enters into the action here
The M1911 Pistols Organization Forums Site - 1911 hammer weight question

Knowledge deepens. Back to the drawing board.