I had a tired, old, home-made, second-hand chipping hammer that was broken and had been so for years. So, I MIG-welded the busted joint, ground the transition, and added a reclaimed hickory handle, which came from a hatchet rebuild shown in a previous video that I posted on YouTube. With the re-weld and addition of copper handle rivets, it should last a few decades now.
Tag: Hammer
Film Friday – Hammer fix
We are well on our way to becoming a doomed and disposable society. Example: After trying in vain to buy a handle replacement locally for my broken framing hammer, I had to buy one online and have it shipped to Seattle from the East Coast. I didn’t need the fancy matching OEM handle. Most any would have worked with a little shaping using a rasp and file. Neither Home Depot nor Lowes sells replacement handles for hammers or hatchets anymore – just handles for garden tools. I had four people try to sell me a new hammer while searching though. Apparently, just spending $80+ is easier than fixing a tool with a replaceable part designed into it. Lazy mother f….. Son of a …
The hammer holds no special value or spot in my heart or personal history. It wasn’t smuggled into the US 300 years ago by a ancestor who built and defended his home with it… Nope, just a framing hammer that someone gave me once. It had already been used and abused for years before it fell into my hands. The point was/is the thing is mine. A tool that I use to make stuff with. A tool that is MADE to have the handle replaced and somehow there are not enough people with the skill and drive to do such a simple task to keep them stocked on the shelves of multiple large national chain building supply stores. I stand by my statement that the movie Idiocracy is a documentary filmed by time travelers.
The whole replacement cost me $12 for the handle and shipping + 20 minutes of my time. A lot better deal than $80+ for a new hammer. As an added bonus, I get to rant a little and make a slide show 🙂
Hand Tool Tuesday – First Post
Last week, I was a little off for two days – a pissed off sort of sad. I thought I had left my hammer out while fence building and it had walked away with someone else. I found it Thursday evening in the garage and I almost did a little jig. This hammer is special to me: I bought it brand new and shinny when I was 12 because my dad said ‘Estwing was the best’ long before they were in Big Box stores and when you had to drive to a particular store in town to buy them. I think it was like $26 and I paid part of the total with rolls of dimes and nickels.
I used it to build my first wall, lay sub-floor, hang countless pictures, install everything from siding to cabinets to trim to roof trusses. It has fed me and my children. I have other hammers including a matching 16oz trim hammer and 4 blue elastomer handled Estwings, but this one has been my constant companion for 30 years and will out live me. Maybe my children or grandchildren will use and appreciate it and think of me when I am gone.
There was a book written in 1990 called “The Things They Carried” by Tim O’Brien. It is fictionalized account of one man’s experience in during the war in Vietnam told in part as a discussion about what he and his companions carried with them. I read it in college and it changed my perception and appreciation for the often mundane things we carry in our pockets, in our bags, and out tool belts. Those simple objects often come to have powerful associations and meaning for us. I have decided to start a new weekly post covering the tools and things that I share my day and life with.