DON'T DO IT!!!!!!!
cooper suter
>I know I'm not the only tradesman (carpenter) on WoodCentral, so you'll get other opinions, but after 25 years of professional nailing I'd say an all steel hammer for carpentry has got to be the WORST choice.
On top of that, 22 ounces is a relatively heavy hammer for anything other than old fashioned hand nailing of walls (straight swing at a 16 penny).
The ONLY virtue of steel handles are that they're indestructable, unfortunately your hand, wrist, and elbow are not.
Steel handles do an excellent job of transfering most of the impact to you arm.
The only people I see using all steel hammers are laborers and hack concrete form and scaffolding carpenters (that used to be laborers).
Get a lighter (19/20 ounces will do EVERYTHING short of true finish work with good technique) WOOD handled framing hammer of good but not showy quality (I've always liked Vaughn's and Craftsman).
Skip the yuppy designer hammers (Death Stick, Stilletto, Fat Max,extreme, titanium, chrome polished Harts, etal), they're nice hammers, but when you factor in the cost, they're all about show.
As a young (18), cocky, testosterone fueled, "bulletproof" carpenter, I copied my mentors (other young (25), cocky, testosterone fueled, "bulletproof" carpenters), and went out and bought the heaviest (24-28 ounce) Estwing framing hammer I could find, and figured that made me a bad ass.
Back in the "old" days, we hand nailed EVERYTHING (walls, decking, sheathing, siding, shingles, drywall, trim, etc.) a LOT of nails. Day in and day out.
Within a couple of years I noticed annoying little things;
My hand/fingers would go numb at night unless I hung it off the bed.
Then my hand, wrist, and elbow would THROB at night, enough to prevent sleep unless heavily medicated w/Bud.
Then I would get SHOOTING pains from my elbow that would cause uncontrolled jerking of my arm (no fun while driving).
Add in locked fingers, swelling, a finger nail that grows in distorted the heavier the hammering and you get the picture.
My first step was to a still heavy (24 ounce) but FIBERGLASS handled hammer, immediate improvement, but not enough.
In the end I switched entirely to quality wood handled framing hammers. The damage is done,I just expect to always have pain when doing hammer heavy work, but the wood has helped it from getting worse.
The other issue is head weight.
Like I said before, unless your hand driving 16 penny sinkers or bigger all day below your waist a lighter framing hammer is actually more efficient and creates less wear and tear.
Very few carpenters are hand nailing everything in this day of nail guns, wall panels, and trusses.
Most of the nailing is of the "pick-up" nature; a little here, a little there, overhead or tight nailing where the gun won't go. A 18-20 ounce hammer is ideal.
If you do need to crank out alot of nails, I can still one swat (tap set, hit)8 penny's and 16's w/a 19 ounce hammer. It's in the arm and the technique, not the weight only.
Coop
