Junkdrawer Dog
Well-known member
I'm sitting here watching a crime drama where the killer struck his victim in the head with a claw hammer. Wouldn't a deadblow have been more appropriate?
We used to call a mullet the Camaro crash helmet.Well, if he had a mullet haircut, maybe a mallet would have been better. A mallet for a mullet.
The number of deaths from Nail Guns in OSHA injury reports is sort of startling.Nail gun for the win…
Honestly he should use an ice hammer so when it melts the murder weapon doesn’t exist anymoreI'm sitting here watching a crime drama where the killer struck his victim in the head with a claw hammer. Wouldn't a deadblow have been more appropriate?
Also in a book / movie with Harrison Ford, where again, he wasn't the murderer, but was accused This shape, not this brand. I think the author referred to it as a whatchamacallitI'm with the pointy-thing school if we're looking at tools-as-weapons, although hammers have a long pedigree (Thor) in these matters.
Oh, yeah! I have one of those. It must have been a freight-line promo giveaway because the wood handle has a decal of a 1930s? 1940? semi-trailer truck with the company name (Knox) on the trailer. Knox Motor Service was based in Rockford, Ill. (I think).Also in a book / movie with Harrison Ford, where again, he wasn't the murderer, but was accused This shape, not this brand. I think the author referred to it as a whatchamacallit
![]()
The Bridgeport Hardware Mfg. Corp. : Catalogue No. 19 : Bridgeport Hardware Manufacturing Corp. : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive
84 p., illus., 23.0 cm, trade catalogarchive.org
Wooden crates are still in use. You need to buy bigger things.Oh, yeah! I have one of those. It must have been a freight-line promo giveaway because the wood handle has a decal of a 1930s? 1940? semi-trailer truck with the company name (Knox) on the trailer. Knox Motor Service was based in Rockford, Ill. (I think).
Also got me a Nox Tox (same catalogue, page 17), less deadly appearing but sure beats bare hands.
Boy, we lost some truly tough looking hardware when wooden crates were supplanted by cardboard boxes. Dang.
(That was The Fugitive, starring Harrison Ford and Tommy Lee Jones. Good movie for a Friday night.)
(That was The Fugitive, starring Harrison Ford and Tommy Lee Jones. Good movie for a Friday night.)
Gonna give it a day in case others wanna guess, check back tomorrow.OK, then. What movie was it?
Fair enough, and I get your point. But I have three Depression-era booklets put out by the U.S. National Committee on Wood Utilization, Subcommittee on Uses for Secondhand Boxes and Odd Pieces of Lumber. (I'm not making up that title.) These booklets make it clear that early in the last century, America at least was swimming in cast-off wood crates:Wooden crates are still in use. You need to buy bigger things.
I'm making table tops right now from plywood salvaged from a crate.
Nowadays, those old wooden shipping boxes--if they still have labels--bring $$ on Ebay and Etsy.Fair enough, and I get your point. But I have three Depression-era booklets put out by the U.S. National Commission on Wood Utilization, Subcommittee on Uses for Secondhand Boxes and Odd Pieces of Lumber. (I'm not making up that title.) These booklets make it clear that early in the last century, America at least was swimming in cast-off wood crates:
"Grocery, hardware, or department stores and most other commercial establishments have a constant supply of wooden boxes and crates which they are usually glad to dispose of at little or no cost.... Since the lumber needed is all less than 8 feet in length, no difficulty will be found in transporting it. In some cases it may be feasable for several boys to cart away the boxes by wagonloads, as storekeepers generally do not like to be bothered with the handing out of one or two boxes at a time. In other instances the material may be carried in the car or on the running board."
The booklet titles tell a story: You Can Make It [published 1929], You Can Make It For Camp and Cottage (volume II, 1930), and You Can Make It For Profit (volume III, 1931). Each is about 50 pages long.
These talk about how you can make all kinds of things from wood that you salvage from standard ordinary shipping crates. The whole tone of these is that there are wood crates being thrown away or burned that you can salvage, take apart, reuse, and better your life by turning them into desks, footstools, hammocks from barrel staves, potting benches, wastebaskets, poultry drinking stands, garden wheelbarrows, laundry drying racks, etc., etc. (I did make a drying rack from the plans & description; we use it every week for the laundry. But no crates were sacrificed to make it: had to get the lumber at Menard's.)
This is the social and economic context for why in 1917 a large mass-market hardware company (Bridgeport Hardware Mfg) would be selling eight models of nail pullers and fifteen different tools for disassembling wood crates and boxes. Yikes on toast!
Wood crates and pallets are used today, but the vast majority of crating materials used in shipping now is — paper, in the form of cardboard.

Presumed Innocent, a fun book, by Scott Turow, and movie.OK, then. What movie was it?