1. Use the right hammer for the job. Using the correct hammer weight for the job will lessen muscle fatigue. Therefore carry a variety of hammers in your toolbox.
2. Grip the hammer by the handle firmly.
3. Keep your wrist straight and use your whole forearm to lift and drop the tool. This will create less strain on joints and muscles.
4. Let the hammer do most of the work, using its weight to drive the nail, rather than pounding on it with your full force.
5. Never strike with the side of a hammer, always strike with the flat of the face.
6. Never strike one hammer with another.
7. Never use a hammer with a cracked face, claw or eye section.
8. Never use a hammer with a loose or cracked handle. The head of the hammer may fly off and hit the user or other person.

Tips on Hammering Nails

1. Angle nails against the grain for better holding power and stagger them to avoid splitting the wood.
2. Protect finished wood surfaces by placing a piece of pegboard over the nail before hammering. Then use a nail set to drive the nail even with the work surface.
3. When nailing hardwoods, lubricate a nail with beeswax or parafin for easier driving. To avoid splitting, use a finishing nail in a drill to form a pilot hole or slightly blunt the nail. Get better leverage and protect the wood when pulling nails with a claw hammer by placing a scrap block of wood under the claw.
4. For very large nails, drill a pilot hole slighty smaller in diameter than the nail. This will reduce the possibility of splitting and make it easier to drive the nail in.
5. Fill holes with plastic wood, putty, or sawdust mixed with glue.
6. Small nails can be held by piercing them through a piece of light card and holding the card.

Choosing a Hammer

1. Drive and remove nails with a curved claw hammer.
2. Tap small nails, tacks or brads with a tack hammer. This is the type of hammer used for making picture frames and upholstering furniture.
3. Cut bricks and align them in mortar with a brick hammer. The head is square and long.
4. Shape metalwork with a ball pein hammer. One face is round and the other flat. The head is very compact and can be used for driving cold chisels and punches. The ball end is used for bending metal and rivetting purposes.
5. Chisel wood with a mallet. The heads are either rubber or wood. Make sure the handle is comfortable. Mallets: carpenters, rubber, and rawhide.
6. Warrington hammers are ideal for driving nails such as panel pins, and staples in light joinery work.

Hints:

1. Be sure that the handle of the hammer is solid wood, steel or fiberglass.
2. Hammer heads come with two types of faces: flat and crown (sometimes called bell). The flat type is used to drive a nail to the work surface; the crown type will allow you to make the nail head flush.
3. When removing nails use a block of waste wood under the hammer head to prevent damage and increase leverage.

Related Products:

• Ball Pein
• Brick
• Club
• Cross Pein/Pin
• Panel Beating
• Safeblower
• Scutch
• Sledge

Soft Faced:

• Copper
• Plastic/Nylon
• Rawhide
• Welders Chipping