How to Choose a Hammer

Right Tool for the Job

Quality Matters

Comparing Features

Job-Specific Hammers

A Final Tip

A hammer is more than just a chunk of steel mounted at the end of a short stick. It is the very talisman of the carpenter's art, an auto mechanic's weapon of last resort, the only nutcracker that will work on coconuts, and a perfect tool for shoeing horses.

Depending on how much and what kind of work looms ahead of you, it could be that the perfect hammer for all your needs may actually be several different hammers.

Quality Matters
Since a hammer is intended for daily use, you'll be wise to spend extra dollars for the quality of a good brand name. Budget elsewhere. A well-made hammer will serve generations, but a cheapo can literally fall apart on the first swing or shatter into multiple flying fragments. (Safety note: Nailheads sometimes go zipping off to become ballistic shrapnel, so always wear eye protection when using any hammer.)

Comparing Features
Weight: Hammers are usually rated by weight. The heads of carpentry hammers range from tiny 6-ounce tack hammers to the brutish 32-ouncers designed for rough framing.

• Lighter: For most light carpentry jobs, a 12- or 16-ounce hammer with a curved claw works just fine for driving small finish nails shorter than two inches.
• Heavier: If you're going to assemble stud walls, build decks, or make up stair carriages, you'll need the authority of 22 to 32 ounces of dedicated framing hammer. A straight claw puts all the weight behind the head, an ideal shape for ripping apart nailed boards, and the correspondingly longer handle (up to 18") provides extra leverage. Framing hammers with wooden handles will occasionally feature the fawn's foot typical of hatchet handles; this helps keep the grip down where it belongs.

Face: Hammers are also classified by the treatment of the face, the name given to the actual nail-striking surface. The face is made of slightly softer metal than the rest of the head, to avoid chipping. Most hammer faces possess one of two types of surfaces.

• Milled: A surface deeply checkered with a diamond-waffle pattern (milled) to "grab" the head of big nails.
• Bell-faced: Slightly convex in order to countersink the heads of finish nails without marring the wood. A good rule of thumb is this: If wood is going to be visible, use a bell-faced hammer to nail it.

Handles: Hammer handles come in a stunning variety of lengths, styles, and materials. Wood: Wood is traditional and relatively strong, but a wooden handle will inevitably break if it pulls one nail too many.
Steel: For rough demolition and the uglier aspects of remodeling, such as gutting a room or pulling off rotted boards and rusty nails, a solid steel handle on your hammer will last longer and work better. Steel shanks can withstand infinite abuse, but even with rubber grips, steel transmits most of the shock of each blow, which is hard on your arm over the long run.
Fiberglass or polycarbonate: If you're going to be doing general framing carpentry--especially if you plan to drive many pounds of nails--consider a wood, fiberglass, or polycarbonate handle. Minimizing the repeated shocks of driving nails will save your dominant hand and forearm from the strain that makes them ache at night, and which can eventually cause carpal tunnel syndrome

Job-Specific Hammers
Drywall: For installing drywall, you'll need a special kind of hammer with a pronounced mushroom shape to the face and an odd, dull hatchet-shaped peen. This design isn't really good for cutting or even scoring drywall; it seems to be a mere holdover from the days when a hatchet blade was needed to chop lath for lath-and-plaster walls. Today, the peen's flat shape helps somewhat when beating nails inside corners. The head of the drywall hammer is angled upward for extra reach. The face is lightly milled, and sometimes also truncated across the very top of the head for driving nails near the ceiling

Roofing: Another job-specific design is the roofing hammer. The face is always milled, often square, and the peen will be either a standard sharp hatchet for trimming cedar shingles or equipped with a tiny razor blade for cutting asphalt shingles.

A Final Tip
No matter how perfect your new hammer or how right for the job, consider wearing gloves the first day you work with it. You're more likely to avoid blisters.

Jeff Taylor, author of Tools of the Trade: The Art and Craft of Carpentry, has contributed articles to This Old House, Esquire, and The New York Times. Now a freelance writer in Oregon's coastal mountains, Taylor works out of a former parsonage that was built from lumber salvaged from an old Army barracks

Article courtesy of Amazon.com.