Estwing hammers = Carpal Tunnel?

Ditto

bill tindall

>My brother who is a professional framer had the same problem from the same hammer. Put him out of work for a month. Air nails most everything now. He tired titanium hammer and broke the claw. He has some shock absorbing hammer he uses now, but I don't remember what it is. I thought it had the nice balance of the Estwing.

Re: Estwing hammers = Carpal Tunnel?

Jack Guzman from Maine

>I retired my estwing wafflehead "meat tenderizer" after 6 months of using it.Been using 16 oz Stanleys ever since.---Jack

Re: Estwing hammers = Carpal Tunnel?

Bob Hutchins in central Texas

>I've got a very old wooden handled steel headed 20 oz. framing hammer that I love for heavy pounding. It pounded many a nail before I got it and I've pounded a few 100 pounds with it. I'm getting too old to swing it all day like I did when I was a kid, but when I need to do some serious persuading it's what I get out.

BobH

Re: Estwing hammers = Carpal Tunnel?

Bill Houghton, Sebastopol, CA

>I worked briefly as a sheet metal grunt in the 1970s, and the journeyman I worked with recommended I get a hammer with a TUBULAR steel handle, rather than the solid Estwing, because they do (slightly) better on shock absorption. Except for one conservative, we used steel handled hammers exclusively, because sheet metal's kind of hard on wooden handles (we used carpenter's hammers in the field, by the way, because there's an amazing amount of nail driving in residential tinbending). I still have that old Stanley 20-ouncer, and use it for demolition, but have switched long since to wooden handles for regular carpentry.

Never liked them Estwings...

Scott Burr in Ben Lomond CA

>Hammers. If you want a real hammer get your paws around a Hart hammer. The 20 oz. Calif. framer is my personal favorite.

Re: Estwing hammers = Carpal Tunnel?

Tony Zaffuto

>When I was working for a living I started with a tubular steel handled hammer. However, after a particularly cold winter outside forming concrete, I migrated to a wooden handled hammer. Elbow and arm aches ended and I've been "wooden" ever since!

One of my favorite tools is my Stanley 10 oz. Warrington hammer--feels like an extension of my arm!

Try a Douglas 20oz

Todd Stock

>20 Oz. Douglas Framer. After Hart drove his first company into bankruptcy, Douglas Coonrad managed to buy back his patents and go into production himself. About $56 locally, in inverted traction face for framing or smooth for finish.

I've stopped letting other guys 'take a lick' with one, as I never get them back. Tried a Ti for a few days, but not my my brew.

Re: Estwing hammers = Carpal Tunnel?

Jim in Burlington Ontario

>Personally I think it's the grip on Eastwing that get slippery and you have to squeeze the handle. My fiberglass handle hammer get's most of the work due to the nice rubber handle.

Re: Estwing hammers = Carpal Tunnel?

Kevin French, Antrim NH

>The History channel RE-re-re-reran the show on the history of hand tools just a couple days ago. On it they showed Stanley's hammer with a tuning fork in it that is supposed to take out the vibration

I don't bend over enough nails to worry about giving up my Estwing but I pick up woodies all the time at the dump and have a good supply of them in all the places I might use one.

You just can't resist, can you?

Bill Houghton, Sebastopol, CA

>"I pick up woodies all the time at the dump."

"I got this really nice Stanley 55 at the dump."

"I picked up a No. 1 at the dump the other day, but set it back down because it was only a Type 9."

Between you and Todd Hughes...

Re: You just can't resist, can you?

Mike G.

>I've been using a Stanley no 100 16 OZ that I picked up in a box lot of tools for 3 bucks at the local auction. Been trying to talk my son in law into getting rid of his Estwing 24 OZ but he seems to like it. Kids, you can't tell 'em anything.

Mike G. in SC

Hammer weight

Bill Houghton, Sebastopol, CA

>Most of my hammering for way too long has been carpentry (whine, whine), and I've managed to acquire a framing hammer (24 oz head, long handle), though I don't like the waffle face because I can't use it on cat's paw nail removers when I occasionally - not more often than every ten minutes - bend the nail. I've got a couple of 16 oz hammers, too. But my current favorite is a Bell System hammer with a handle like a 16 oz hammer, but a head that seems to be more like 22 oz. Surprisingly nice balance, and very effective.

Kevin's Dump..

Don Thompson - Cutler Ridge, Florida

>I visualize it as being kind of like an outdoor version of Rob Lee's old tool warehouse.

Questions by amateur carpenter

Don Thompson - Cutler Ridge, Florida

>Is this the one to which you refer?

Is the problem because it has a steel shaft?

Re: Questions by amateur carpenter

Bill Houghton, Sebastopol, CA

>The steel doesn't absorb the vibrations, indeed transmits them quite effectively - which is why tuning forks are made of steel, not wood. Wooden handles tend to dampen vibrations, thus preserving the tissues of the hand holding the handle.

This whole conversation is related to the frequent discussions of the chatter-reducing effects of wooden plane bodies, and am I not clever for bringing the conversation back to the central obsession of this forum?

Re: Questions by amateur carpenter

Mike G.

>Hey now!!!...Carpentry is considered woodworking , albeit rough sometimes. In fact, I used my mortice plane today to hang a door.

Mike G. in SC