Claw Hammer

[davyfireball]

I lost my claw hammer for 3 weeks . My wife bought it for me on valentine day in 1976. Took me 3 weeks before I found it. (On the garage ) I use it for everything . If it doesn t fit I beat the Hail out of it. A guy without a hammer is a day without sunshine . I Love. My rip

This post was edited by davyfireball on 04/03/2023 at 02:02 pm.

 

[Charles in Aus.]

I recently retired my 20oz Estwing leather bound claw hammer . One of the pins at the end of the handle snapped. I've used it for almost 40 years and couldn't live without one so bought another straight away.
I also have three others , two 24oz framers and another 20 . I found two of them buried in gardens , lost by their owners for years it seems . If they liked theirs as much as I like mine they must have been greatly annoyed .

 

[Richard G.]

I lost my favorite hammer back about 1985.
One year when the pond got low, there it was.
I had been building a dock and must have dropped it.

 

[mechanicfred]

I have a hammer in my truck tool box, got it from ma and pa when I was about 14. Fifty years ago for christmas, Dad always said A hammer is a tool of skill. Any idiot can pound with it, takes skill to know how hard to hit!'

 

[Steve@Advance]

Here's a hammer story...

Many years a go, there was a father-son-son wrecking yard I used to deal with, it's long gone now.

It was my favorite one, they had a lot of the old stuff, would let me go in and get what I wanted, and
were dirt cheap!

The father was a bit of a grouch, so I tried to avoid him. The oldest son was the most helpful and knew
what they had and where to look. The youngest son, well... He had some issues. Wore extremely thick
glasses, was a little slow all around, but friendly enough, wanted to help when he could.

I went in one day and the young son, probably 30 something years old, was sitting on the floor in a pool
of grease and whatever else was down there... He had a short handle sledge hammer in his hand trying to
beat a wheel bearing race out of a front hub with screwdriver! He was wailing on that thing, missing 9
times out of 10, I'm talking missing by 8 to 12 inches, just flailing at it! He had already bloodied up
his hand, but didn't seem to even know. I think it started as a vision problem, then he got mad, and
completely lost it!

I got him up off the floor, changed it for him, he was forever grateful, and the prices went down even
further that day!

Strange thing though, one day I was looking for something in the yard, didn't find it, told him I was
leaving with nothing. He insisted I let him cross reference the part out of a stack of huge dusty books
up on the shelf. I told him don't worry, I really didn't have time, but he insisted.

He got down a couple of the books and started scanning through them one page at a time, literally had
the lens of his glasses almost touching the page! I told him I had to go and would stop by in a day or
so.

I had forgotten about it and a week or so later I was in there, he flagged me down to come in the
office.

He had hand written, printed, a full page of cross reference cars and part numbers for whatever it was I
was looking for. No telling how long he worked on that, but it looked like something printed by a
computer! Every letter and number was spaced and sized perfectly, perfect straight lines on plain paper.
I was shocked at what he handed me. I asked him if he did that, Yes, he beamed!

Really strange, looking back I think he must have been a savant!

 

[rrlund]

If at first you don't succeed, try a bigger hammer.

 

[TimV]

While not having a hammer (or two, or twenty) seems inconceivable to most of us, I read somewhere a while back that a large rental chain found it was their most frequently rented tool, so there's lots of people out there without one. One of my favorite stories of Helping the Hammerless was a gal I worked with. Nice gal, worked hard, but some poor life decisions (mainly in the matter of starting parenthood with guys who had no intention of doing anything past the initial 'donation') meant she had no one around to help with many house chores and no money to spend on either buying tools or hiring help. Happened to mention to me one day that she had hung something up using a rock to pound the nail in, and that night I went home, grabbed a claw hammer head out of my stash, welded a hunk of water pipe to it and handed it off to her the next day. You'd have thought I gave her a solid gold hammer--she was grateful almost to the point of tears, and as long as we worked together she'd mention to me every time she used her hammer.

 

[sms]

My two 32 ounce framers. Note how the
older one on the left claws are worn
down. Had it for 37 years. Framed about
70 houses(3 years) in one development
they wouldn't let us use nail guns. With
a big hammer things move when you hit
them.

 

[miangus]

Nothing like a good 20 framer as noted below. I used to help a friend campaign a late model stock car. He always seemed to be using a claw hammer with broken claws, which I always complained about. He was helping me on my drag car and noticed my 30 oz machinist hammer and said I now see why you are always complaining about my hammer. He said that's not a hammer that is a war club. That hammer had pushed a lot of pistons out of the ring compressor, with the handle.

 

[1970-1655]

I worked for many years with a group of friends framing. I always used a 30 oz. Estwing with the milled face, and 6 pole barn nails. The other guys would be
swinging away until they were tired. It would take me 2 or 3 swings and the nail was in. When I build our house in 1987, I used native poplar 2x12 for floor
joists. Missed a nail and took my thumb nail completely off. I just cleaned the thumb, put it back together, wrapped the thumb with a Band-aid and back to work.
After I got the house done, the big hammer has a place above the work bench. I very seldom get it down anymore. After 35 years and a lot of memories, it is
retired.

 

[Mike Groom]

I still have my 12 oz. Estwing that my dad bought me when I was 12 years old (62 years ago), it is the one with the leather handle and I keep it in a small tool box in the basement, still think about my
dad,whenever I use it, and remember being with him when he bought it at the lumber yard in Boaz, Wisconsin many years ago.

 

[Gomer]

I have a lot of hammers, but the ones I always reach for are the Estwing rip-claw.
I just can not use a curved claw hammer. I finally found a 12 ounce rip-claw to complete my collection. The other 10 never get used.

 

[Tony in Bama]

30oz? Takes a man to swing one of those for very long...

 

[chvet73]

When I was in college at shop teacher school one of the professors talked about how he hated the new
fangled fiberglass and steel handled hammers. I already had a Sears fiberglass handled hammer. But I
took his advice over the years and stuck with wood handles for the most part. I have both a wood and
steel handle framer. I find he was totally correct. The wood handle is much easier on your arms and
hands.
I was wondering if others agree.

 

[Usedtobeiowadave]

I'm in the minority here. I'll crank up the compressor, unwrangle the airhose, and get out one of 4 or 5 different nail guns, find the correct nails for it,
and load it up just to shoot one nail that I know will go in straight and leave my thumb intact.

 

[Scott 730]

The wood handle is much easier on your arms and
hands.
I was wondering if others agree.

Absolutely true. Estwing's were used for concrete form work and demolition. Nothing but my wood handled 24 oz. Vaughan when framing and driving nails all day. The tubular shaft True Temper framing hammers were also very good.

 

[caterpillar guy]

Bigger hammer actually swings easier since you don't have to swing so hard to get things to move with less damage.

 

[Tony in SD]

X2 as with most present day carpenters. I dont think you are in the minority. Go to a lumberyard and ask how many loose nails they sell now days. Its almost all nail gun nails being sold.

 

[RobCons]

I like my nail guns as much as anybody but one of the framing hammers is always close by.

 

[circus]

Hammers are for more than just nails. Claw hammer admittedly not used.