Thors Hammer Build

What sorcery is this? You can make a homemade metal Thor’s hammer and take it back to your chambers for less than 100 gold coins? Yup. I was asked to build this by my subscribers, and I gave it some real thought because I didn’t just want something to look at. I wanted something epic, a talking point, something with a use, but still buildable and relatively cheap and safe if you wanted a cheeky project. Here’s what I came up with…

Apart from being a talking point for any self respecting man cave, this build could make a fabulous door stop or centerpiece for workshops or Gyms. This is a piece of manly manliness that is definitely something unique.

How to make Thor’s hammer

The first thing I did was to order some steel sheet online, 4 or 5mm plate is fairly inexpensive, and you can order it pre-cut for little or no extra cost. The 4mm steel plate used in my Thor’s hammer project cost just over £25 delivered from The Metal Store with a little left over. The 32mm steel bar cost under £18, free shipping, and the fake leather strap was £3 from Amazon. The only professional cost was to turn down the steel bar so I could insert the fake leather grips, this would not have been necessary but after filling the hammer head with scrap lead, the sheer weight would have ripped the leather from the handle. Very dangerous.

A quick google search turned up a great local metalworking and fabrication firm near to me called McCallion Welding and they were able to turn down the steel on a lathe. I would also have asked them to professionally weld it for me, but this seemed like cheating, so in the spirit of keeping it cheap and DIY I got a friend with a welder to do it for me. A six pack of beer later and we were good to go.

How heavy is Thor’s hammer?

Mjölnir was forged by Drawven blacksmiths and made from the fictional Asgardian metal uru, It’s said to weigh 42.3 pounds, but in short no one really knows, all we know is that it’s impossible to lift if you’re not worthy, read more on Wiki. Here on Earth my plan was to go as heavy as possible, as cheap as possible. That meant filling it with molten scrap lead I had saved, and I have a project and video on casting lead available if you are curious. Although you could use Concrete or sand as an alternative.

My Thor’s hammer weighed 14 lbs before lead, and 91 lb afterwards. That may not seem that heavy, but the handle is so off balance it’s crazy, that makes it really difficult to lift. In fact I tweaked my back messing with it. I figure to be worthy with my version, a one handed lift above the head should be the benchmark, with a double handed lift gaining you the also ran, second place silver. I think there are only a few people on the planet who could manage a proper one handed lift without cheating in some manner. The way you simply run out of strength when it’s just a few inches off the floor is kinda funny.

Thors hammer size and dimensions

How big is Thor’s hammer? To make my replica as authentic as possible I bought a 1:1 Mjolnir replica online and got all the measurements I needed, and I have a close look at the details and dimensions in a downloadable picture further down. The width of Thor’s hammer head, at least with my replica, is 175mm, length 260mm, and the height including circular detail in the bottom to the top is 180mm. The full height including the handle is 490mm, or from the top of the hammer head to the top of the hammer shaft 305mm.

So even if you’re just making a wood or cardboard version, at least you have some sort of scale to work with.

Downloadable Mjolnir size guide

In this downloadable JPG you will also find all the scroll work and runes I had on my replica. On balance I decided not to include any because I wanted to use the hammer for some rough and tumble, so any extra time creating nice details would be a waste. Possible methods I considered briefly were, print transfer and engraving with a dremel, etching with a DC adapter and wand, or etching with Ferric Chloride.

Hey guys, It takes me time and money to provide this for free. Please consider ‘liking’, ‘following’ or sharing a post of mine on facebook to give back, thanks 🙂

The above project is aimed at adults for education and entertainment purposes only, not to replicate. Anyone doing so takes full responsibility for their own actions.