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Thread: I need a new hammer

  1. #16
    Join Date
    Jan 2018
    Location
    Vancouver Canada
    Posts
    716
    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.
    Young enough to remember doing it;
    Old enough to wish I could do it again.

  2. #17
    Join Date
    Jan 2007
    Location
    On the edge of Pisgah National Forest
    Posts
    236
    Don't be a NINO, use a Rock.
    Nostalgia isn't what it used to be

  3. #18
    Join Date
    Aug 2007
    Location
    Dickinson, Texas
    Posts
    7,655
    Blog Entries
    1
    I have a collection of hammers, but my favorite is a 7 ounce wooden handle Belk Nap BG47-7.

  4. #19
    Join Date
    Oct 2011
    Location
    NW Ga
    Posts
    60
    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.

  5. #20
    Join Date
    May 2018
    Location
    Lancaster, Ohio
    Posts
    1,346
    Quote Originally Posted by Lamar Keeney View Post
    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.
    Blue Grass is a name I haven't seen a long while.
    First fiberglass handle was a BlueGrass 16oz straight claw, then a 20oz straight claw. Really liked them and still use them
    Ron

  6. #21
    Join Date
    Jan 2019
    Location
    Fairbanks AK
    Posts
    1,566
    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.

  7. #22
    Join Date
    Nov 2007
    Location
    NW Indiana
    Posts
    3,078
    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?

  8. #23
    Join Date
    Dec 2019
    Location
    The old pueblo in el norte.
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    1,844
    Quote Originally Posted by Larry Frank View Post
    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
    ~mike

    happy in my mud hut

  9. #24
    Join Date
    Jan 2019
    Location
    Fairbanks AK
    Posts
    1,566
    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.

  10. #25
    Join Date
    Dec 2010
    Location
    South Coastal Massachusetts
    Posts
    6,824
    Quote Originally Posted by Larry Frank View Post
    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?
    The problem is you made them inexpensive.
    It's cheaper to drive to a box lot store and buy one than it is to rummage around for the ones you already own.

    I think GPS was invented because of all the steel floating around...

  11. #26
    Join Date
    Sep 2007
    Location
    Longview WA
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    27,347
    Blog Entries
    1
    I think GPS was invented because of all the steel floating around...
    Go Purchase Steel?

    jtk
    "A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty."
    - Sir Winston Churchill (1874-1965)

  12. #27
    Join Date
    Dec 2019
    Location
    The old pueblo in el norte.
    Posts
    1,844
    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.
    ~mike

    happy in my mud hut

  13. #28
    Join Date
    Apr 2015
    Location
    New England area
    Posts
    588
    Stubai joiner's hammer:

    https://diefenbacher.com/more-tools/hammers-mallets/

    Scroll down.

  14. #29
    Join Date
    Dec 2010
    Location
    South Coastal Massachusetts
    Posts
    6,824
    Quote Originally Posted by Jim Koepke View Post
    Go Purchase Steel?
    jtk
    The compass always pointed toward Gramps' Park Shop.

  15. #30
    Join Date
    Mar 2009
    Location
    central tx
    Posts
    589
    Quote Originally Posted by Charles Guest View Post
    Stubai joiner's hammer:

    https://diefenbacher.com/more-tools/hammers-mallets/

    Scroll down.
    I'll probably end up with another one too but I couldn't resist ordering one of these

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