carpenter hammers in the shop?

[dan1552]

what is your opinion of carpenter hammers in the workplace.I have heard everything from silly to unprofessional from my peers and non issue from others. I know alotof shop foreman hve pet peeves like with crescent wrenches for example .Just curious.

 

[BillK]

A hammer is a hammer. Some have claws on one end, some dont. I actually use my claw hammer more often than any other because it is the closest one to grab. And I also use my Crecent wrench fairly often too.

I also dont care what other people think about which tools I have or use .... I get the job done, that is what matters

 

[FlameOut]

A shop without a hammer isn't a shop

 

[wantedabiggergarage]

Over the years, cabinets have been built for the shop, and it has been remodeled. Those hammers are great for that, and they work if you need/have a flat faced one.

Now, what is wrong with Crescent wrenches? They don't like the brand?

 

[Coach James]

All my tools are in the same space so I have every type of hammer I own together. I've seen the guys on American Chopper pounding cold chisels with claw hammers so it must be the right way to use them.

Coach

 

[mikeyr]

I saw this quote on a mailing list today, its not mine, I can't take credit for it but I will be using it from now on.

If you can't fix your problem with a hammer, you have a electrical problem.

 

[crustyoldfe]

It's probably more to do with it being a carpenter's tool for sinking and removing nails whereas a ball pein hammer is a mechanics tool used for beating on mechanical stuff.
Nothing will put a mechanic in his happy spot like the bell like tones elicited by striking a hardened piece of steel or cast iron with a ball pein hammer.

Bob

 

[babzog]

Hammer fight! Hammer fight!

 

[Diesel-Mech]

I saw this quote on a mailing list today, its not mine, I can't take credit for it but I will be using it from now on.

If you can't fix your problem with a hammer, you have a electrical problem.

That's been my sig for a few weeks now.

No I cant take credit for it.

 

[A_Pmech]

What's this about not being able to fix electrical problems with a hammer?

Beating on my old CRT full of cold solder joints always cycled the colors though purple, green, yellow, red, and finally back to "normal". Sometimes I'd go one tap too many and have to go though the "cycle" again.

 

[dkcase]

A carpenter's hammer has a hardened face for striking a soft nail. A ball pein hammer is not hardened, for striking a hardened tool like a chisel.

Don't hit two carpenter's hammers together.

 

[jamesemery728]

I had always heard that a carpenter's hammer was made of a harder steel than a ball pien hammer and therefore would be more apt to shatter when used to pound on steel. I guess the theory is that nails are not as hard as any machine parts that would be struck with a ball pien hammer. That maybe old school, don't know if its still true.

 

[jamesemery728]

I had always heard that a carpenter's hammer was made of a harder steel than a ball pien hammer and therefore would be more apt to shatter when used to pound on steel. I guess the theory is that nails are not as hard as any machine parts that would be struck with a ball pien hammer. That maybe old school, don't know if its still true.

dkcase said it better than I did.

 

[eborcim]

I don't think a waffle head framing hammer should be used for anything other than driving a big-*** nail, but to each their own opinion. Regular carpenter hammers will get the job done in a machine or mechanic shop, but the right size ball pein will get the job done easier than its lighter weight-clawed cousin.

 

[dan1552]

allright , thanks everyone I think I get the whole spectrum of opinion here. I love this sight! espcially the one about if American choppers do it .

 

[ddawg16]

Hammers are a lot like wrenches and sockets.....each has it's application.

I have 6 hammers......3 different capernters (different weights), 2 ball pein (big and small) and one plastic (mallot).

Mythbusters did an episode on hammers....smacking two carpenter hammers together....it didn't quite pan out......no, they didn't shatter....

 

[FunfDreisig]

...If you can't fix your problem with a hammer, you have a electrical problem.

WOW I didn't know hammers were diagnostic tools

Funf Dresig

 

[tdkkart]

Ever try to drive a nail with a ball-peen hammer?? Don't work worth a ****, and neither does trying to do metal work with a carpenter's hammer.
Pick up a 16oz version of each and try interchaging jobs with them and see how it works.
There IS a difference.

Coming from guys that claim that a $39 Craftsman ratchet can't possibly do the same job as a $150 Snap -On ratchet, and you can't tell the difference between hammers?? Good Grief!!!

 

[Gary S]

No toolbox is complete without one claw hammer. It also needs a handful of ballpeen hammers, a small sledge hammer, and an assortment of "soft" hammers.

I will say that I sometimes use the claw hammer to pound on steel parts and I've never had one break up. I have have had a ball peen hammer explode trying to do the same work.

 

[Torque1st]

I have driven many nails with a ball-peen hammer without any problem.

 

[Kevin54]

A carpenter's hammer has a hardened face for striking a soft nail. A ball pein hammer is not hardened, for striking a hardened tool like a chisel.

Don't hit two carpenter's hammers together.

Yep...like ddawg16 said, Mythbusters did a segment on hitting two hammers together. The handles would break but the heads never did shatter. They busted them together harder than anyone would hitting the two together by hand. Also I have used Ball Piens on chisels and never had a problem.
A claw hammer works in a shop and no reason for it not too, but a ball Pien does not drive a nail too well. And a ball pien IS hardened as I have hit many a different types of metal, different types of punches and have not marked the heads yet. It may be hardened differently, but it is hardened. If it wasn't hardened ball piens would be mushroomed out on the heads after prolonged use.

 

[knudsen]

A carpenter's hammer has a hardened face for striking a soft nail. A ball pein hammer is not hardened, for striking a hardened tool like a chisel.

Don't hit two carpenter's hammers together.

Here's a good one to learn the difference between different types of hammers. Take a ball pein or mallet, get your face right over that train rail anvil and whack it good. Then do the same using a claw hammer. Which one hurts more? YMMV

I use claw hammers to drive and remove nails in the shop and around the house. I use a lead hammer to beat on my mill, and a mallet to whack a punch on the rare occasion that I do. And I use body hammers and ball peins to form metal. You shop is your shop, though, and you can use whatever you like to hammer whatever you hammer.

I thought it was funny when I bought my lead hammer. It had a Californication sticker on it proclaiming it may cause harm to reproductive organs. I thunk, hell yah! That suckers heavy. I head their warnings and swing it no where near any reproductive organs!

 

[bgott]

Not only do I have a claw hammer in my mechanic's tool box, I also have a carpenter's saw. Sometimes you need to cut a piece of 2x4 or 4x4 for a brace or a wedge and a hack saw is a PITA for cutting wood.

 

[kbs2244]

They are different and for good reasons.
But I will be the first to admit that when I want to hit something I use what is handy.

 

[goodfellow]

Up until the 1950's, a standard carpenter's hammer was part of many "Master Autobody" service sets. Reason being is that the body and fender repair trade has its roots in the old wood "coach building" trades. Since many cars well into the 1940's had a lot of wood used in their construction, the most expensive Autobody repair kits included a nice assortment of woodworking tools (braces, planes, saws, hammers, etc).

The most elaborate autobody repair sets were from British manufacturers, and they are now very high dollar collector's items. Rolls Royce had it's own branded tools and many of those early sets included fine carpentry tools.

 

[knudsen]

Nothing beats a claw hammer for prying off a mangled body part in tight spaces

 

[STClurker]

merkva must be driving slowly over to this thread

 

[e-tek]

27 replies on hammers. You guys can beat anything to death!!

In the "old world", an apprentice mechanic was chastized for having anything larger than a tiny ball-pein hammer. Same for a carpenters hammer and Crescent Wrench - neither where considered "precision" tools and if you had them, you used them and you where therefore a HACK. I'm QUITE sure you'll not find a carpenters hammer, nor a Cresecnt Wrench in a Lambo/Farrari/MB mechanics tool chest.
I would guess 99% of GJ members - as good as think they are - are hacks. There's very few high-end mechanics around any more.

 

[BigRed390]

Hack reporting in here!

Got a drawer full of crescent hammers and carpenters' wrenches!

 

[bugdust]

I admit, I have a bit of a hammer fetish. I have a 22 oz estwing and a 16 or 18 oz estwing in my shop box. I also have a couple sizes of ball-peens, a short-handled 3 lb sledge, a long-handle 3 lb sledge, a 4 lb sledge, a 3' handled 10 lb sledge, a brass hammer, a few mallots, a few dead-blow hammers, quite a few body hammers (various sizes, shapes, wood handled and fiberglass), a soft hammer (different compounds on each side) and maybe a couple more I can't remember.

I own 4 or 5 Crescent wrenches as well.

 

[Uncle Buck]

I never could bring myself to store any of my claw hammers in my hammer drawer of my mechanic box. I just never set right with me. With that said, through the years I have found frequent need for a hand saw, level, square, wrecking bar (some call it a crowbar) and a claw hammer. The way I have resolved the issue is to hang on hooks, pegs, or the wall everything but the claw hammer and the wrecking bar.
I keep my wrecking bar stored hook end over my roll cab handle, and the claw hammer is stored with it's claw securing it to the top of my top box, which I never close.
I have found a frequent enough need for all of these tools that I want them close at hand, but not stored in my sliding drawers, that is just wrong.........................

Well, I have to back up a bit here, I actually have a toy hammer complete with steel head, broken claw, and wooden handle that was my very first when I was 5yrs old. I have no idea why I have always left it in my hammer drawer because I have not used it since I was 5, so don't ask me why it is there! Sentimentality perhaps? That is the only reason it could be, because I will never again use it. Why the heck would a guy do that?

 

[speed bump]

I dont think it matters if it will help you get the job done or at some point might be useful then put it in your toolbox. Looking at the massive tool collections people have here I would think that you would see plenty of claw hammers in shops.

27 replies on hammers. You guys can beat anything to death!!

In the "old world", an apprentice mechanic was chastized for having anything larger than a tiny ball-pein hammer. Same for a carpenters hammer and Crescent Wrench - neither where considered "precision" tools and if you had them, you used them and you where therefore a HACK. I'm QUITE sure you'll not find a carpenters hammer, nor a Cresecnt Wrench in a Lambo/Farrari/MB mechanics tool chest.
I would guess 99% of GJ members - as good as think they are - are hacks. There's very few high-end mechanics around any more.

Hmm working on exotic cars would be cheap compared to the stuff I work with and everybody carries crescent wrenches and a good chunk of the maintenance guys have claw hammers. Why? because its easier to have all the tools available that you could possibly need rather sit there trying to make something else working while your losing $100,000+ an hour in production.

I always love the cars mechanics that say crescents or claw hammers are for hacks and what they work on is a very small system in a pretty tightly controlled enviornment. Try sticking to all of your rules when what you are working on could be 100' feet up or a 1/4 mile away and it has to be fixed yesterday; oh and by the way its 0°F and snowing sideways and you need to be in a man basket off a crane to get to it.

Personally based on your description I am proud to be a hack because it means i'm not sitting there wanking about when something goes wrong. BTW heres a couple of claw hammers in my toolbox.

 

[metal1313]

i have a tack hammer in my box, but no claw hammers. but thats because i have a thing for checked faced hammers and for some other projects i use a decent claw hammer but i dont really keep it in the garage

 

[e-tek]

Now THAT's the hammer collection of a HACK if I've ever seen one! Not a specialty hammer in the bunch!

BTW - I'm the biggest HACK I know!!

 

[wayoff]

I saw this quote on a mailing list today, its not mine, I can't take credit for it but I will be using it from now on.

If you can't fix your problem with a hammer, you have a electrical problem.

My favorite is, "if it has a handle, it's a hammer". Someone said that to me years ago when I was using thier borrowed vice grips to beat something I was welding.


That said, I don't allow claw hammers to be left with shop tools. I have a rack with 20 different ball peen, dead blow, and sledge hammers on it. But I take exception to anyone using a claw hammer in a fab/mechanic shop.

 

[bugdust]

I admit, I have a bit of a hammer fetish. I have a 22 oz estwing and a 16 or 18 oz estwing in my shop box. I also have a couple sizes of ball-peens, a short-handled 3 lb sledge, a long-handle 3 lb sledge, a 4 lb sledge, a 3' handled 10 lb sledge, a brass hammer, a few mallots, a few dead-blow hammers, quite a few body hammers (various sizes, shapes, wood handled and fiberglass), a soft hammer (different compounds on each side) and maybe a couple more I can't remember.

I own 4 or 5 Crescent wrenches as well.

I forgot, I own a few chipping hammers as well. My 22oz estwing has a waffle head and it is in my hammer drawer. How do I justify it? I don't. I'm not so uptight that I have issues with having a "tool" in a "toolbox". It's my tool, my toolbox, my shop...it makes sense that it all be in the same place.

 

[DEFCON4]

As usual I'm a day late and a dollar short on a response...

Best one I heard from an old mechanic who knew his stuff... "Hey hand me a wrench from over there"...I asked him what size, and he said "A big one, I'm going to use it as a hammer anyway"..

 

[krehmkej]

I've seen the guys on American Chopper pounding cold chisels with claw hammers so it must be the right way to use them.

Great recommendation. Surprised those clowns know one end of a hammer from the other.

 

[Farmallgray]

I grew up in a mechanics shop. We would use ball pein hammer for everything but we didn't do much carpentry. Now that I have my own property and I'm too cheap to hire others to do work for me, so I do everything myself and have learned how to do carpentry and electrical work. I now have some carpentry and woodworking tools including claw hammers. I do keep them seperate from my mechanics tools. I have however, found that a tri-square is a useful tool for metal fab work besides wood working.

 

[rocketman]

I've actually used a Crescent Wrench as a hammer, but it would be kind of hard to do the reverse.