Show us your favorite hammer.

[The Nothing]

how about a hammer I wish I could take a photo...?

 

[Sgt Nambu]

View attachment 360341 View attachment 360340 I own a lot of hammers, my favorite is not right here close but here are a few of the ones I really like.

The one above is a 8 pound striking hammer made by a friend named Nathan Robertson and me holding it for scale. The four below were all made by my friend Jacob Faram.

Just these 5 represent around $1500, I have at least a dozen more that were custom built for me at a cost of $150-$300 each and probably another dozen that are in the $100 range. I also own at least 30 hammers I made myself.

All told I probably own 300 hammers, there are maybe 20 I use on a regular basis.

My standard reply when someone asks why I have so many hammers is...

If you only own 3 hammers, you will always have the right hammer for the job. If you own a hundred hammers, you never have the right hammer for the job.

It's actually very accurate.

I make my living as a blacksmith,
Hammers kind of go with the gig.

I also own 5 power hammers ranging from my "little" 100 lb Beaudry to my big 750 lb Chambersburg

View attachment 360339

OH! YEAH BABY! WACK IT AGAIN!!!

 

[Medic!]

I show up at the job site looking to get hired.

The foreman asked ''I see you have a nice 32 ounce hammer there. Can you use it''?
I said ''Very well. Thank you''.

He said. ''OK. Can you twirl it forward like this''. And He spun the hammer forward.
''Sure'' I said. And I spun my hammer.

''OK then. Can you spin it backwards like this''? And he spun his hammer backwards.
''Yep''. I said. And I spun my hammer just like he did.

''OK. That's easy stuff. Can you spin it. Throw it in the air? And have it land it it's hammer ring on your bags like this''? And he proceeded to show me.

''You bet''! I said. And I did just as he'd done.


Then I asked. ''So do I get the job''?

He just looked at me and said.
''Nope. You F- around too much''.

 

[The Nothing]

how about a hammer I wish I could take a photo...?

Well, @Medic! liked the post, so I'll take that as permission. Now, this might not make a "favorite" list, but it is a hammer of significance.

U.S. Executions - 1946 - DeathPenaltyUSA, the database of executions in the United States
Scroll down to #13061
That was my great-grandfather. In 1945 he was making headlines in Tacoma higher up than WWII. On two separate occations, he attacked my great-grandmother with a hammer. The second attack, my grandmothers youngest sister was accidently killed. He was sentenced Nov '45, IIRC, and hanged January '46 (where's that swift justice today?!?)

Now, here's the amazing part about this story.

The family kept quiet. My grandmother and surviving siblings KEPT THIS A SECRET. Looking at photos we'd hear "That's Granpa Joe, he died just after WWII" or "That's my baby sister Mary Anne. She died when she was five." We never thought to delve into it much more than that, people and children died back then of things that don't exist today.

Fifty years later, my dad was spending a lot of time in Salt Lake for work so made use of the genealogy labs. Then he started spending time looking at Tacoma news microfiche at the library. That's when we learned. In the Spring of '96, when my dad found himself alone with my grandmother at a family gathering, he just said, "I know."

While, like I said, I couldn't call this a "favorite hammer," it is a hammer that I'd nonetheless like to see, if not possess. The hammer attack and death of my grandmother's youngest sibling caused a lot of silence, and some say lies, for 50 years. The discovery of the situation actually pulled the family together. Some previously unspoken questions seemed answered.

All with a hammer.

 

[Dungannon]

Some previously unspoken questions seemed answered.

Thanks for sharing that. I've done a lot of genealogy work: no murders but have surprised relatives with evidence of suicide, military and family desertion, affairs, prison sentences and the like.

Now, back to favorite hammers.