Estwing tools

You'll need a piece of heavy leather; you should be able to find something from a shoe repair or leathercraft shop. The thicker the better.

You'll probably need to make a punch to cut the holes in the rings to fit the handle tang. I'll bet you can fabricate something out of thin wall tubing. Maybe flatten a piece of half-inch conduit and sharpen the end. The punch will have to be hollow so you remove material from the center of the hole.

Once you've got a working punch, just punch a bunch of holes in your leather, leaving enough room between the holes to cut your rings. Cut the rings to rough size, then put them on the hammer handle and replace the end piece. Once everthing is back together, shape the handle however you want with a grinder, belt sander or whatever.

If you replaced the existing rod that the leather rings are on with a flat tang, or built it up to make one, you could attach a wooden handle that you had sawed in half lengthwise with brass rivets through holes drilled in the tang. I did this once but it was on a novelty carpenter's hammer that I made by cutting the head out of the head of a 20# sledge hammer. I considered it functional, but I doubt that the person I gave it to ever actually used it (certainly not for carpentry.) Knives often have wooden handles attached in this way, but they don't take the beating that a hammer does, so I don't know what the actual durability would be.

All the best, Stan

Of course, it could be that this law mainly is meant for tool dealers who "repair" something for customers who might sue 'em. Then again, I've had Snap On men put new gears in my rachets before, and new handles on screwdrivers, and....