[TheForge] hammer handle sizing

Tue May 20 09:13:00 2003

Hey Catherine,
The basic rule of thumb is to hold your hammer handle with your normal grip
and observe the size of the gap between your longest finger and the fleshy
edge of your thumb pad.
Buddy Leonard showed me how the old time smiths taught him to finish a
handle.
The hammer head would be clamped at a comfortable angle in padded vise jaws.
He would break an old coke bottle, find apiece of glass with a concave sharp
edge, and scrape the handle with long strokes along the long axis of the
handle.
He would always thin down the handle neck.
The final step was to grab the handle between the reins of a pair of tongs
and burnish the wood, followed by standing the handle in a bucket of linseed
oil for a day or two.
It also helps a lot to have someone video tape you while you are hammering.
Correcting poor hammering technique will go a long way towards preventing
arm and shoulder problems.
Chuck

----- Original Message -----
From: "Catherine Jo Morgan" <[email protected]>
To: "'Blacksmithing mailing list'" <[email protected]>
Sent: Monday, May 19, 2003 10:01 PM
Subject: [TheForge] hammer handle sizing

> I keep reading that if you want to prevent elbow problems, it's better
> to err in the direction of too large a handle rather than too small. But
> of course the sources are talking about tennis racquet handles. What do
> you think about hammer handles? I have my most used ones pretty well
> padded, which makes them on the large side.
>
> Catherine Jo Morgan
> Morgan Sculpture
> Iron and mixed media vessels
> [email protected]
> 706-754-3812
>
> online artist journal: http://radio.weblogs.com/0120691/
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>
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