Peddinghaus goldsmith's hammer

This is something I have wanted to write about for a while. I wanted to write about this hammer because I hate it. I like the size and weight, I modeled the hammers I made on this hammer, but it has one serious problem, and that is that it has a heavy chrome plating. There's a couple reasons why this is stupid, and I have yet to hear any reason why chrome plating is good.

I don't remember when I got this hammer, but I have had it several years at least. In the beginning it was fine, and I liked it. My friend also had the hammer, one day he told me that the chrome plating started chipping off his hammer. I thought that sucks, but my hammer was still ok so I didn't worry about it too much. A year or two later, the plating on the cross peen of my hammer started to chip off.

The problem with the stupid plating chipping off, other than looking like shit, is it is very thick plating, so it leaves a sharp edge which will mark the metal you are hammering. After this big piece of plating chipped off, the rest of the plating started chipping off. So I just went with it, and decided to try to chip off all the plating. It wasn't so easy, it chipped of easy enough around the corners, but the rest wouldn't come off.

Another problem with the head is the cross peen is too squared off and the edges are too sharp. Most people will want to make the cross peen more rounded. Having a hard chrome plating makes this more difficult and trying to round the edges will probably lead to the plating starting to chip off.

I can't think of any good reason for chrome plating the hammer. Rust prevention? That's stupid. It's a jeweler's hammer, not some tool that's going to be outside exposed to the elements. Did they want the head to look polished, but were too cheap to actually polish it?

No other Peddinghaus hammers I have seen are plated. Their other hammer heads are painted black except for the faces.

This is not the kind of thing I expect from a German tool manufacturer.