I recently bought a small milling machine - too small for anything big, but perfect for work like that - so if I was making another hammer I would mill it. To do it this way you need a rather expensive type of silver solder, hard solder but lower melting point than some) which Brownells make in ribbon form about .005in. thick. Well I need it anyway. I would use an air-hardening steel, although this time I used O1, and seem to have got the sear notch adequately hard.
Did I ever say this sort of work is economically worthwhile? No, but if I ever see another in the same state, looking at me like a puppy in a petshop, I will probably do it.
A lot of firearms were made from Belgian forgings or tubes, whether they admit it or not, including almost all American damascus shotgun barrels. I have a Bohemian muzzle-loading double rifle with Belgian view provisional proof marks on the fine-grained barrels. Here is a revolver in exactly the civilian Lefaucheux style, although it was built as a centrefire, for the 12mm. Perrin Thick Rim cartridge which was designed so that rim would cover all of the pin slot in conversions from pinfire. It bears the name of Marazzi and Fusi in Lecco, northern Italy. Belgian firms would engrave any retailer's name on a completed firearm, and some would do it fraudulently. But this one is stamped, and inside the recoil shield where only dismantling would reveal it. So the chances are that it is a genuine Marazzi e Fusi product, and my guess is that they bought in the forgings from Belgium.