Titanium hammers?

[Phil Pascoe]

I had the forward weight Estwing and didn't really get on with, mainly I suspect because I don't do much of the heavy work/wrecking that's it's designed for. My blue 16oz Estwing is so old it has "Patents Pending" on it.

 

[Jameshow]

That's not necessarily true. I have a 16 oz hammer that hits a nail in faster than my old 22 oz estwing. I'm a framer by trade, and got it through a secret Santa trade. I thought it was a gimmick, but after using it, I would never go back. It is balanced totally different , eliminating weight in places not needed for the hit.

I used to build quality shed and hammered in 60mm nails though 22mm cladding all day with a 20oz stanley and ended up with a sprained wrist and bulge in muscle just beyond the wrist.
16oz will take longer but your wrist will thankyou unless your Popeye!!

 

[TheUnicorn]

I watch people doing things/using tools and so many have a rigid arm/wrist like when painting wrist rigid just bending arm and looks dam awful!

I agree, I was advised years ago to use a saw with a loose grip and a loose wrist, the saw should glide through /across the wood in relaxed long strokes. broadly speaking I think the same applies to a lot of tools

 

[baldkev]

Buy whatever you want doug.....
Put a different way, buy it, try it, if you dont like it you can sell it 'hardly used' in a couple of weeks and get most of the money back...... or, of it's fantastic, let us know how / why!

 

[Logger]

I am a joiner with a torn rotator cuff (and can't spend 4 months recovering from surgery) and have a 16oz vaughan dalluge titanium hammer. Best thing i ever did and well worth money. Others who try it are amazed how good it is too.

 

[Doug71]

Well it's looking like everyone who owns them rates them highly so think I might give one a try and as Kev says I can always sell it on.

Thanks for all the input, very helpful.

 

[Homeless Squirrel]

Well it's looking like everyone who owns them rates them highly so think I might give one a try and as Kev says I can always sell it on.

Thanks for all the input, very helpful.

Get quite a few so we can get one off you to try!!.

 

[baldkev]

Get quite a few so we can get one off you to try!!.

Ive got first dibs on the cheapest one

 

[Lefley]

I used to build quality shed and hammered in 60mm nails though 22mm cladding all day with a 20oz stanley and ended up with a sprained wrist and bulge in muscle just beyond the wrist.
16oz will take longer but your wrist will thankyou unless your Popeye!!

We use to have new guys show up, 20 years old, bulging muscles. Back in the eighties when we hand nailed everything. They would run out , buy the big 28 oz framing hammer, then brag how bi* there hammer was. Start pounding walls together, next day sprained wrist, crybabies. They would never listen."

 

[Homeless Squirrel]

We use to have new guys show up, 20 years old, bulging muscles. Back in the eighties when we hand nailed everything. They would run out , buy the big 28 oz framing hammer, then brag how bi* there hammer was. Start pounding walls together, next day sprained wrist, crybabies. They would never listen."

But much depends on how you hold/use a hammer like any tool and theres many poor tools using tools poorly!
if flexible and learn to relax on impact so hammers doing the work find far easier than whacking the thing with a tight grip/arm.

Wait till you have to start whirring a 2kg felling axe around!

Make the tool work for you not other way round.

 

[Morag Jones]

On the Douglas hammers, I got one many years ago and treasured it because it was so pretty. Only ever used for smart jobs, until a friend was helping on a job and needed to put in a couple of masonry nails ….

Of course because the thing was neatly put away he knew just where to find it. As opposed to half a dozen cheap ones lying around the place that were 20 or 30 feet away.

Can anyone advise if it would be possible to dress out the face and re-polish?

 

[RobinBHM]

do people still use hammers?

 

[Cozzer]

....The theory with the titanium is something like when you hit a nail with a titanium hammer almost 100% of the force is transferred to the nail but with steel only about 70% as 30% is lost in recoil which comes back to the user as vibrations....

Can't comment on the titanium vs. anything really, but the above comment caught my eye.

When I was 'obliged' to do some metalwork at school - (y'know the kind of thing - making a poker for the coal fire you no longer had at home, and the 6-egg stand in woodwork class that either fell to pieces in weeks, or curiously disappeared into the bin one day...) I also had to practice bashing 8 bells out of a round piece of metal on an anvil.
Instructions were given along the lines of smacking the piece twice(?) but the third hit was a fairly gentle tap on the anvil itself to get rid of 'vibrations'.
To this day, if I see a TV actor playing a farrier or whatever, I always think "you're not a real one!"


Sad really.
I should get out more....

 

[mondo]

Years ago I had a similar problem. Switched to a Stanley Graphite hammer which has a tuning fork in the handle to absorb the vibrations. Worked instantly. Comparable price to regular hammer. Don't know if still available but worth checking out.

 

[pe2dave]

Can't comment on the titanium vs. anything really, but the above comment caught my eye.

When I was 'obliged' to do some metalwork at school - (y'know the kind of thing - making a poker for the coal fire you no longer had at home, and the 6-egg stand in woodwork class that either fell to pieces in weeks, or curiously disappeared into the bin one day...) I also had to practice bashing 8 bells out of a round piece of metal on an anvil.
Instructions were given along the lines of smacking the piece twice(?) but the third hit was a fairly gentle tap on the anvil itself to get rid of 'vibrations'.
To this day, if I see a TV actor playing a farrier or whatever, I always think "you're not a real one!"


Sad really.
I should get out more....

I always pictured that 'third' tap on the anvil as a way to keep rhythm going whilst the work was turned as necessary?

 

[Cozzer]

I always pictured that 'third' tap on the anvil as a way to keep rhythm going whilst the work was turned as necessary?

You may well be right.
All I know is that I was useless at it!

 

[Lefley]

Delete, wrong thread.

 

[paulrbarnard]

Years ago I had a similar problem. Switched to a Stanley Graphite hammer which has a tuning fork in the handle to absorb the vibrations. Worked instantly. Comparable price to regular hammer. Don't know if still available but worth checking out.

I have the same. On the odd times I need to bash a nail it is the one I reach for.

 

[Doug71]

Well I finally got round to getting a titanium hammer (birthday present to myself).

I went for a 10oz Stiletto with a wooden shaft, I was initially looking at the 14oz version but it is huge, obviously designed for knocking in big nails all day which I rarely do.

It turned up today and it does feel really nice. I was a bit worried that 10oz would be a bit on the light side but I've knocked a few nails in with it and it didn't seem to take any extra effort, yet to see what it's like with a chisel.

It really is light which I really like, I rarely wear a toolbelt but do often use a hammer holder so the lighter weight is a definite plus. The Stanley hammer I have been using weighed 850g, the new Stiletto only 520g so a big saving. It's years since I've used a wooden shafted hammer, it feels totally differently weighted to my steel shafted ones, I guess the steel shafted ones carry a lot of weight just in the handle.

Photo for comparison showing my faithful 35yr old 16oz leather handled Estwing which lives in the workshop, the new 10oz Stiletto and the 20oz Stanley I've been using on site which the Stiletto is replacing.