Half way to forty hammers.

The Man With Forty Hammers.

I used to work in Co Clare in a lab. Part of the job was taking samples from sites around the county. We drove past a small workshop and the guy driving said 'That man has forty hammers'.

A couple of weeks ago I bought a ballpien hammer from a travelling salesman. I didn't really need another hammer, but I bought it anyway to hansel the man, it was a wet day and he'd been travelling over a hundred miles and I was his first customer. I sometimes think I bring good luck to these people, if they make a sale to me early in the day then the rest of the day will be good for them.

It's the blue hammer towards the lower middle.

Anyway I started thinking how many hammers have I? So yesterday I gathered them all up and laid them out on a pallet. I found 18 including a mallet, there was one in the car and another in the jeep, actually the one in the jeep is a fencing pliers, but it can be used to hammer in a staple. So I'm half way there, to the man with 40 hammers that is, if you will allow me to count the fencing pliers as a hammer.

What's the big deal with hammers you may ask? Well to put it simply the hammer is the mother of all tools. When our ancestors picked up a rock to bash a nut open that was the first rudimentary tool. To make a better tool they shaped flints with another stone and so on until we started to melt ores and cast them. Today hammers are still used by a few of us on a daily basis. Most of the farmers I know have at least one hammer, some have two or three, but 20 is a bit OTT. I have an excuse though, I am a blacksmith. When I gathered mine up yesterday I deliberately didn't gather up the ones with no handles, there is at least a half dozen or so of them.

Most of my hammers were bought in joblots at auctions. Some were on the farm before I was born. One christmas I mentioned that I'd like a hammer for christmas, I got 3 ballpiens that christmas.

Below, I re-arranged them according to their purpose.

On the left are two sledges, the long handled one weighs 10lbs, the other is an 8lb stone mason's hammer. Next are two more stone mason's hammers, used to finish the face of a stone. Then there are six blacksmithing hammers of various weights, the sixth one is used for swaging. Next are a few carpenter's hammers with a claw for pulling out nails. Beside them is what I think is a cobbler's hammer. that came in box of tools at an auction. Next up we have 2 lump hammers, made in China, they are slightly softer and can be used for forging, especially to hit tool steel without damaging the tool steel. Generally one of these lives in each tractor on the farm. Finally at the extreme right is the wooden mallet, sometimes used to hit chisels for woodwork, or can be used in the forge to straighten a twist without marking it. My next hammer purchase will be a rawhide hammer, also used for forging, light taps on something that is almost finished. Perhaps I'll mention it at christmas and get 3!