I have Stiletto Titanium and a 22 oz Vaughn, both with wood handles. Love'em to death.
Stanleys, and for stubborn problems, a 2.5 and 5 lb sledge.
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I have Stiletto Titanium and a 22 oz Vaughn, both with wood handles. Love'em to death.
Stanleys, and for stubborn problems, a 2.5 and 5 lb sledge.
Don't be a NINO, use a Rock.
I have a collection of hammers, but my favorite is a 7 ounce wooden handle Belk Nap BG47-7.
For serious work a Vaughan 20 oz smooth face straight claw with 16in fibreglass handle. (Still available) and if I only could have one it would be the Vaughan. Lighter work an older Craftsman fibreglass handled. Like the thin ears. The in shop go to is a Blue Grass 14oz wooden octagon handle. Of course I have a bunch more around from 3oz to 8lb to cover anything else that needs frailed on.
I stumbled on this one this morning and finally got around to looking it up. In the expanded version of the Anarchist's Design Book Chris mentions (pp 364) he prefers a 16oz hammer with a slightly domed head. Then I opened some boxes in my yet unused cut nail collection, and then I looked at my hammers.
All my active hammers have a slightly domed head. It was a thing I learned years and decades ago, but when your hard won nailing skill seems to have left you, look at your hammer face to see if there is chip out of it. If there is, sand it out. I move the hammer handle up and down as the hammer face is sliding back and forth on a bit of sand paper fastened to the bench top. Roll it a bit left, keep going, back on center, roll it a bit right.
Once the hammer face is smooth, shiny (and slightly domed) your mad skillz should be restored. I estimate the dome on my hammer faces to be in the range of 8-16" radius, it is enough to see but it would take both hands to sweep the arc of the implied circle. I don't expect I will need to further modify my hammers when I get around to using the cut nails I have in the house.
I don't know how many old hammers I have picked up at garage sales just to feel the grip. I only bought a couple of those, but there is a lot of handle profiles out there. Just like hands come in all shapes and sizes I guess. You got grip a bunch of them to figure out what works for you.
I agree both Vaughn and Estwing make reasonably good current production hammers. I haven't seen a wooden handle on a hammer with the grain orientation I want manufactured in a long time.
Where I worked we made the steel for Estwing and Vaughn. I always amazed when we would make 600 tons for one of them and wondered how many hammers that would make. Are there that many lost or need replacing?
Well, there's also just the random collection of hammers. I probably have about 2 dozen, and 'collecting' wasn't intentional. The last one I bought, I was at a friends house and we needed to fix a shed roof, so at the big-box store.. I bought another hammer. Then again, I have hammers I use for demo, hammers for staking concrete forms, hammers I use for framing, hammers I USED to use for framing (I don't want to swing a 30oz hatchet, or even a 24oz framer too much anymore thank you), hammers for trim work, etc.. you get the idea.
Scott, can always make your own handle ;) I'm not all that convinced it makes a huge difference ultimately anyway (at least not in longevity).. but that's just a personal observation
It occured to me overnight the radius of the dome on my hammer faces is approximately equal to the length of the hammer handle, or where I was gripping the handle last time I polished the face.
My opinion - I spent less than one season on a framing crew- hammer grip comfort hour after hour trumps all. Impact and rebound of various handle materials can be learned and/or sensed. Various claw bends and radii all have something they are good for. If you can't pick it up after lunch because your hand is throbbing from this morning nothing else about the hammer matters. If you are only swinging it a couple hours per year it will take longer to find out how comfortable to use the hammer really is- and it may not even matter.
I don't really care if wood grain in my handles is parallel or perpendicular to the hammer face. What I don't like is grain that makes a 90 inside the handle so one side is face grain and the other side is edge grain. Even worse, grain runout is just dangerous on a striking tool handle, amplified if there is a ladder involved. I see a lot of wooden hammer handles at the big box stores that have grain patterns I find unacceptable, and it seems like there is more runout accepted at the factories than ever before.
My general purpose main hammer is a Millers Falls 20oz. It has a tubular metal handle with a sliding weight inside. But the grip, well the grip just fits my hand. It is probably the poorest rebounding hammer I have ever owned, but I don't care because the grip just fits my hand perfectly. The superior impact is gravy. I figure it is kind of like work boots. Wolverine and Danner both make good workboots, but that doesn't mean either will fit your foot comfortably.
I have never made a hammer handle. I have started making and shaping my own axe hafts, but it is time consuming for me at my shop.
Go Purchase Steel?Quote:
I think GPS was invented because of all the steel floating around...
jtk
Yea, I agree with runout and twisted grain. I've found decent handles at tool stores (and strangely my local ace hardware) recently. Not at a big box in a long time. Also completely agree with being able to conformably swing it all day being the primary deal in general, and the grip being most important. Great observation about the radii of the face.
Stubai joiner's hammer:
https://diefenbacher.com/more-tools/hammers-mallets/
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