I did some cold cutting and hammering on 602's a while ago----something I have done with other cymbals too. The 602's seem to be very hard and poorly tempered and have a very coarse crystal structure , which is a bad combination for durability but obviously good for brilliance.. They seem to be more crack prone than the other cymbals, I goofed with. They would even develop lateral cracks along the cut line.Crystals were about twice the size of Zildjian As for instance.
I'd like to pick your brain sometimes on the results of your hammering experiments calfskin _ I've read a bunch of the cymbalholic threads from Mike Skiba {may he rest in peace} and Johan {I thinks was the name} in terms of the radial hammering involved.
Back to Topic.
I've of late been constantly experimenting with Hi-Hat combinations.
The current line up is a medium thin Z Custom Mastersound Top paired with a New Beat bottom _ but really other than using a sound edge bottom _ I find that whatever bottom cymbal used plays an obvious and very subordinate role.
Discovered this using a really inferior bottom at my bass players rehearsal space when using his drums _ I'd bring a ride, 2 crashes, and put the 14" Master Sound top above a broken 13" Camber _ and it actually impoved the 'chick' sound.
I'm outfitting a rig to mount very low and right on top of my bass drum_ a pair of really old 7" _ "copper toy cymbals" _ as an auxillary closed hat _ they're a little clangy with shoulder strikes _ but the 'stick' on them just KILLS _ and sounds like a pair of very heavy hats.
Quite useful in certain situations _ when I want both _ a closed hat ride sound_ while driving a left foot chick pattern.
Ohm