Gentle Galoots,
I did not want to hijack the Jacktown thread, but I did want to say a few words
about big hammers with short handles. This is a mighty handy thing to have in
some situations
If you were to visit a construction project which has millwrights and riggers at
work, you would see some sledge hammers whose handles have been "bobbed" to less
that 30".
If you watch a RR track gang in a territory which still uses wooden ties and
spikes, you will see that some of their long spike maul heads have handles about
30" or so. If there's a massive number of spikes to be driven, well, there's a
machine for that. Ones-es Twos-es, they drive by hand. Sometimes, the shorter
handle helps, at least as a "starter".
(A RR spike maul is a very elongated double-faced sledge hammer head about 14"
long. I've seen track workers drive a spike home by standing on the far side
of the rail with a long handled spike maul. That's a neat trick because you
cannot see the head of the spike you are pounding.)
Years ago, when I went to a now-defunct (sigh!) industrial supply house in
neighboring Perth Amboy, they had a choice of sledgehammer handle lengths, from
40" down to about 24"
I recently ran across of pair of brand-new handles with the large round end to
fit the eye for a sledge hammer but only 16" long. I take this as proof that
there is sufficient demand for short-handled sledges that there's a market for
short handles.
I've not seen any conventional blacksmith hammers with the large round eye;
blacksmith hammers, IMHO, usually have an eye like a large ball peen, which I
guess IS a blacksmith hammer by definition.
So, if you have too many sledge hammer heads, consider putting one on a short
handle. If nothing else, it can be a bucking block for work on something that is
able to flex.
John Ruth
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