[TheForge] RE: hammer handle sizing & grip

Tue May 20 20:43:01 2003

I prefer a thin (side to side) and wide (front to back) handle. Typically 
flat on the sides and rounded on the ends, similar to Uri Hoffi's handles, 
though those are a little wide for me. I finally saw Uri demonstrate at the 
SERBC and discovered that I had somewhat stumbled upon his method.  To me 
the most comfortable and most precise (ie hammer control) grip is to sorta 
pinch the handle between the thumb and fore finger and use the ring and 
little finger to "snap" the hammer during the stroke. This grip prevents 
the shock transmission into my forearm and ultimately my elbow, and helps 
tremendously with hammer control. Its also much less tiring to hammer over 
long periods of time.

mike

At 08:54 PM 05/19/2003 -0700, you wrote:
>Hi,
>In response to Catherine Jo Morgan's comment about padding the hammer
>handles; I'm trying 'padding' the handle with 'vet wrap.'  I've wrapped some
>parts of the handle more thickly than other parts to get more of a
>customized fit for my hand.  This is on top of slimming down other parts of
>the handle with a palm sander.  Haven't had a chance to try it yet, but will
>report on the results soon.
>
>-Alix Peshette
>
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: [email protected]
>[mailto:[email protected]]On Behalf Of Andrew Vida
>Sent: Monday, May 19, 2003 8:29 PM
>To: [email protected]
>Subject: Re: [TheForge] hammer handle sizing
>
>
>
>
>Catherine Jo Morgan wrote:
> >
> > 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.
>
>         I dunno about tennis raquets, but I would definitely say that
>         at least for me, too small is vastly preferable to too large.
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         Michael Linn
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