Hammer face repair

I have recently aquired a well used "S. Goddard" lock on a rife that has a badly pitted hammer face from years of being dry fired and corrosion. What is the best way to correct this? Weld it and remachine, JB weld, fill with tin and reshape, grind it out depper and smooth it out? And should the face be flat or dished/curved? :idunno:

Is the pitting causing misfires?

If it is, the first thing to change would be the nipple.

If that fixes it so that it fires reliably leave the hammer face alone.

If the hammer face seems to be causing an unreliable condition, have a local machine shop with a milling machine use an end mill to plunge cut just enough material from the hammers face to remove most of the pitting. Removing all of it is not usually necessary and it will change the alignment of the hammer with the nipple.

Epoxies like JB Weld are much too soft for this job.

I have found a simple fix is to cut a piece of brass shim stock from .003 to .010 .( Which ever you an get. )to fit the recess and mix up a small drop of JB weld. Place the JB on the face and then put in the shim stock and SLOWLY let the hammer down onto the nipple. This will give you a flat face that sits flat on the nipple.I assume you have a new nipple and not the damaged one in the rifle.

The face should be flat.
And the Flat of the hammer face, should strike the nipple squarely, all along the circumfrance of the nipple.

A Dremel grinding stone will fit in there nicely. Get some inletting black or lipstick and coat the top of a new nipple. Lower the hammer down to the nipple to pick up some of the transfered color, then look at the hammer face.
Grind away the color on the hammer face and repeat the proccedure until a full circle of color is transfered from the nipple to the hammer face.
This causes the hammer to fully strike the seated cap on the nipple,
,it's a great tip from Paul V.

If there is no V cut in the front of the hammer make one, the "V" helps the cap expand at firing so it's easy to remove from the cup.

A good close up picture would help.
You may not have to do anything.
Looks and function are different things.