Years ago, I read an article in some magazine where a guy talked about spinning his hammer. He said that while waiting for the concrete truck, he and his mates would stand around and see how long they could spin their hammers on their index fingers. You hook the claw over your finger and twirl it around.
After reading that, I wanted to try it. I got to work and told my friend Pete about it. He thought it was a waste of time, of course. But that didn’t stop him from giving it a go.

We were working on the roof of a two-story building. It was a flat roof with steel deck and did not yet have any roofing on it. What we were doing up there was fairly straightforward. The standard detail for a flat roof has wood around the perimeter to attach the flashing, and we were installing that wood.
I’ve had a straight claw hammer for well, forever. And, of course, Pete had one, too. For as long as I can remember, there were only two types of hammers you’d see handing off a guy’s belt: the standard blue-handled 20-ounce steel-shank ripping hammer or some cheap piece of junk. Of course, the latter came in a number of different versions. There was the wooden-handled, 16-ounce, curved claw classic that always had a loose head. You can always drive a few nails into the end of it to help keep the head from flying off. Then there was the fibre-handled model which always ended up with the head snapped off. These generated the worst splinters a hammer-handle has ever known. If the handle hit anything, it would start to disintegrate. Then, of course, there was the tube-handled hammer. These come in a variety of sizes, from the home-toolbox picture-hanger on up.

I bought a tube-handled hammer once when I needed a hammer and the only store around only sold those or ultra-cheap, wooden-handled, fly-apart hammers. It served me well for a while but then someone stole it. I never got a chance to see how long it would last.
Why someone would steal a $10 hammer, I don’t know. I usually get $40 hammers stolen.
I always own a wooden-handled hammer. I had one for years that was a champion at pulling nails. It was great for my around-the-house work, from framing walls to driving finishing nails. Then one day, I was driving a 3 inch nail and the head snapped off. I was a little shocked.

Anyway, Pete thought hammer-spinning was great. We spent a great deal of that morning practicing the fine art. It takes talent to spin a straight-claw hammer more than a couple of times around your finger. But that ends up being ok. The noise it makes when it hits the metal deck undoubtedly made it sound like we were getting something done.
I have recently started seeing people with some pretty odd-looking hammers. My guess is manufacturers started wondering why they weren’t charging more for their hammers and someone said, “Well, everyone buys the same hammer and it’s been that price forever.” Endless committees and group studies later, the brilliant deduction was probably “We can charge more it we make it really really ugly. People think ugly things work better.” Some more head scratching and it was a go.

I was talking to a guy who had one such special-looking hammer. He is a commercial carpenter, spends most of his time driving screws. He said he was suffering the most terrible pain in his arm from driving nails and so he went out and bought this new hammer which completely cured it. He compared it to orthopedic shoes but, according to what he said, orthopedic shoes are a lot cheaper than that hammer. It was easily the most expensive hammer I’ve ever seen. But there is very little worry about anyone stealing it. No one would think there’s much use for a waffle-iron on a construction site.
Looking at that hammer, what made my opinion of it drop the most was the fact that it had one of those nail-holders in the head. A little embedded magnet holds the nail in a slot and you can drive the nail one-handed. Sounds great. Except people who’ve been using hammers for work already know how to start a nail with one hand. You hold the nail between your middle and ring fingers with the head of your hammer clutched in the palm of you hand, head of the nail held tight to the side of the hammer, and you bang the nail into the wood. Hammers are used to hit things. The more square-corners and fine-edges on the striking surface, the greater the likelihood of the hammer-head ultimately chipping.
When a piece of metal chips off the striking surface of a hammer, it tends to shoot away at a tremendous speed. That’s why you never strike the face of a hammer with the face of another hammer – unless you need to pull a nail.

I never tried spinning that special hammer on my finger, but I can’t imagine it would work very well.
Don’t get me wrong, I don’t want to be accused of being one of those guys who says “What the hell is that piece of crap? Only an idiot would buy such a thing.” If that hammer did make his arm stop hurting, that’s great. But I think it may have been because he spent most of his time that week showing it to people.

I spent a full 14-hour day driving three-and-a-half-inch spikes once. I couldn’t open my hand the next day, it hurt so much. It is a good idea to try to design the tool to minimize the flow-back of force. But it would have been a better idea to get an air-nailer for such a task.

But spinning an air-nailer on your finger just isn’t as cool.