Ultimate framing hammer?

[Joel_BC]

This is a fascinating video from a guy who is designing what he feels will be the ultimate framing hammer. (The lead graphic from the embedded Youtube vid simply shows four of his favorite hammers, from each of which he's taken one or more design features - but his idea adds new features, too.) It's worth watching, and I'd love to read comments from guys here who watch...

Whaddya think?

 

[baymule]

My hammer of choice is a 22 ounce waffle head. Yeah, I'm not a guy, but I sure love tools! I like the curved design of the hammer on the end. It looks intriguing. I have to confess, I fast forwarded through the preamble at the start of the video and I think it would have had more impact for me at least, if he had actually been banging nails.

I went to a church gathering where we were roofing a widow's house. I took my big hammer, leather tool belt and climbed on the roof. The women were on the ground cleaning up the mess, but I would rather lay shingles. The "man in charge" didn't know what he was doing, so I got my own piece of the roof and roofed it. I heard one of the men mutter, her nail pouch is better than ours. And several tried to swap their puny hammers for mine.

 

[Joel_BC]

Well, Baymule, you've earned the right to an opinion. Yeah, I agree - would have been better with him even showing a 4-second bit with each of the hammers he liked, during the vid, driving some nails.

The hammer he discusses first, which is the one on the far left, is the Estwing innovative "weight-forward" hammer... differently balanced. Some guys swear by it, saying they feel less tired at the end of a day when using it, and have had less in the way of chronic soreness in the arm. Personally, I haven't used one for long enough even during a single day to say how I feel about it (meaning, I have not bought one of my own to give it a lengthy enough trial).

The guy who made the vid likes it, though - along with features from the other ones, too.

 

[baymule]

Hurricane Ike dropped a massive oak on our house in 2008. Roofers wanted $11,000 to fix the roof. We got the structural damage fixed for hundreds, not thousands, then a guy from work and I did the roof. Total cost was under 5K, I could have used that shiny curved hammer then! It would have gotten a good workout!

 

[k15n1]

I prefer the big framing hammer with the meat-tenderizer pattern on the face. I like how it marks the nails and you can "pull" them straight as you hammer.

I've been swinging a 3-lb hammer for the past few months. At my last blacksmith class, the teacher suggested a lighter hammer. At the time I was forging nails. You start with relatively thick stock, hammer out a point, and put a head on it. Once the nail was tapered and thin, the smaller hammer (16 oz) was better. But most of the work is in making the taper, so I went back to the 3-lb hammer after a few nails.

I've noticed that people with strong opinions about tools usually have done a lot of something. You can get by with any tool for a while. But if you do a lot of a specific task, you'll develop a preference for better and more specific tools. At least, I do. Whether it's shingles or processing 100 lbs of apples, I think that kind of experience is valuable and inspires some measure of respect.

 

[Joel_BC]

I've noticed that people with strong opinions about tools usually have done a lot of something. You can get by with any tool for a while. But if you do a lot of a specific task, you'll develop a preference for better and more specific tools. At least, I do. Whether it's shingles or processing 100 lbs of apples, I think that kind of experience is valuable and inspires some measure of respect.

I agree that people with experience can pass on good tips about which tool is better to use, for effectiveness and for comfort or to avoid tiredness or soreness.

Interesting thing, also, is that guys can get set in their ways with tools. In my earliest time on construction jobs, I noticed older workers who would not adopt ear protection or cordless drills when they were being readily adopted by younger guys.

I put the 'ultimate hammer' video up on another site, where there are a lot of very experienced and skilled guys (construction, DIY, shop work) - none of the responses were at all open-minded. Okay. But I'll bet the screwdrivers these fellows use look and feel different from the ones common in, say, 1950.

I'm not saying I want to promote this guy's new hammer design. It's not in production, so obviously I haven't tried one. But attempts at innovation - some successful, some not - are why we've arrived at the technologies used to produce the lives (urban or rural) that we know today. Think about the chest freezer and how great-grandma didn't have one! Carpenters & painters were still using wooden ladders (heavy!) into the early 1960s, when aluminum started replacing. And solar panels?