[TheForge] Dewalt new hammer and sledges

[parkej7 at rpi.edu]

I also use friction tape on my handles. You can get it in fairly wide strips as hockey tape or any other similar product at a sporting store. 
I purchase hickory handles and sand down the front part into a flatter part with a arcuated surface and narrow chamfers. With the friction tape this gives your fingers a comfortable choice of handle angle and good grip whether you’re swinging heavy and low on the handle or choked up and doing light work. 
I think the tape is 1” x 40’ for fairly cheap, like maybe $8. 
Learning what you like in a handle and customizing that to your needs changes the quality of a certain hammer a lot in my experience. 

> On Mar 23, 2018, at 22:36, Bruce . <freemab222 at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> Good to hear from you, Frosty.
> 
> Perhaps I should share an experiment I tried some years ago and found
> satisfactory, but  never perfected.
> 
> I took a sponge-rubber ball, about the size of a tennis ball, and notched
> it to fit over a hammer handle.  I then wrapped the ball and handle with
> friction tape.  (Look that up if you're not old enough a fart to know what
> the stuff is.  It formerly was used by electricians, and is not the stuff
> used these days on tennis rackets.)  The result was a "lump" on the handle
> that I could move anyway I wanted.  I'd generally position it halfway down
> the handle or so.  My thumb and index finger then would go around the
> handle while the other fingers grasped the ball.  This essentially forces
> the user ot use the grip suggested by Hofi.
> 
> I found I could swing quite hard without any risk of the hammer slipping in
> my grip.  The grip feels quite natural, as does the swing.
> 
> What I'd wanted to do was to make the whole thing more convenient, but I
> never got there.
> 
> Bruce
> NJ
> 
>> On Fri, Mar 23, 2018 at 6:35 PM, jerry Frost <akfrosty at mtaonline.net> wrote:
>> 
>> 
>> Oh yeah, hammer handles. I hate factory handles, actually prefer the old
>> Estwing integral steel and leather or rubber handles to what's on new
>> hammers. Since I started using slab handles I haven't thrown a hammer by
>> accident even once. I buy 5/4" straight grain clear hickory from a hardwood
>> supply guy and have a couple patterns I based on what Uri Hoffi  likes. I
>> taper them about 3/4" from head to the end, it makes them easy to hold
>> without gripping and if they start to slip at all your grip tightens.
>> They're eaasy to use for hours without tiring. I hold my hammer between the
>> first knuckle of my index finger and my thumb so it pivots giving me a 4th.
>> pivot point. Every pivot is a force multiplier so I can swing harder
>> without
>> using as much energy.
>> 
>> I prefer the fiberglass and plastic handle on my 8 lb. sledge to wooden.
>> 
>> Frosty
>> 
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