extends beyond the cap 24 whereby the point 36 may be used to chip slag from a welding site the hardened nature of the point 36 permits the point to have a long wear life and the point end 36 will retain its shape and sharpness much longer than points previously ground upon a head of a conventional welding chip hammer use of the positioning ring 42 is optional and the assembly shown in fig2 can be accomplished without use of the ring 42 the ring helps to initially maintain the point 36 within the cap 24 but if the ring 42 is omitted from the assembly the point head 38 will directly engage the wall defining chamber 30 which maintains the head 38 against the stud end surface 22 preferably a chamber 44 is defined within the grip 14 fig4 and a threaded removable plug 46 provides access to the chamber 44 as shown in phantom lines spare points 36 can be stored within the chamber 44 another embodiment of a welding chip hammer utilizing concepts of the invention is shown in fig5 8 in this embodiment components substantially identical to those described above are indicated by primed reference numerals in the embodiment of.