The trick of using a hammer correctly is not to swing the hammer down with your own downward force. This is when you run into guidance issues and wind up striking your thumb. You let the weight of the hammer do the work and your hand is only the guidance means. It's why there are different weight hammers from a few ounces for finishing nails etc, all the way up to heavy sledge hammers. A 5 pound sledge is about the biggest I'd want to mess with. And even that can do some really serious damage.
Alan Please click on: http://www.home.earthlink.net/~alanandsuzanne/ There, you'll find files of my arrangements and performances played on the Yamaha Tyros keyboard. I often add files so check back regularly! The albums in Technics format formerly on my website are still available upon request. ----- Original Message ----- From: "Dale Leavens" <dleav...@puc.net> To: <blindhandyman@yahoogroups.com> Sent: Tuesday, August 24, 2010 7:06 AM Subject: Re: [BlindHandyMan] hammering a nail in? >I built a three story 16 by 32 foot addition to this house several years >ago now driving each and every nail by hand the old fashioned way with a >hammer. It is a skill but it helps to learn how to do it correctly. I often >listen to people driving nails as I walk about town and I can hear who has >got it and who does not. At the risk of sounding sexist, and I am >unashamedly sexist though not in the way implied, my observation is that >most females and many children do not employ a hammer correctly. some of >this is probably uncertainty about strength or the strength required but I >expect it is mostly a matter of training and confidence. > > Intuitively it seems that one would be more accurate at hitting a nail > when holding the hammer near the head and using the rest of the handle as > a sort of balancing lever. Actually this is incorrect. You may like to > choke up on the hammer for starting a nail but even that isn't all that > effective. > > Here is how I do it. > > Grasp the hammer back toward the far end of the handle. > > Place the nail with the other hand, I use the right for striking and the > left for setting the nail. > > I hold the nail between the index finger and thumb unless it is one of > those God forsaken roofing nail or a very little finishing nail in which > case I usually set it between my index and long fingers. > > I raise the hammer and gently tap the head of the nail as a targeting > strike, which if successful I follow with a firmer stroke, creating a sort > of > > tap tap > tap tap > tap tap > > rhythm. When starting this is usually only required a couple of times > until the nail is well enough set. > > I then withdraw the left hand resting it near the nail and reaching across > with the index finger to touch the nail while I withdraw the hammer and do > a target tap from a longer distance with my finger present, then withdraw > the finger and hammer and strike the nail as strongly as I like again with > that > > tap bang > tap bang > tap bang > > rhythm. > > Well, that is the technique, in actual practice I don't do nearly so much > of the tap bang rhythm now as I once did though I probably do when I have > not been laying a lot of nails in the recent past. > > the real trick though is not to choke up on the hammer. You will drive a > lot more nails a lot faster and with a lot less energy and actually your > aim and direction of the forces to drive the nail are far more accurate. > You will bend far fewer nails and use far less effort as well. > > There are a couple of builders around town who, when they have new helpers > with them and see me passing their work site will call me over to show how > I can drive nails. I generally get a coffee and some information about > their project for the price of driving half a dozen nails which seems to > have impressed them enough to prove to their helpers I can do it. I > suppose it comes back to the difficulties some people have in > understanding how anything can be done without sight. > > Just now I am disassembling a cement breeze block wall with a masonry > chisel and a 4 lb. mallet and a 10 lb. sledge. I wish I could find an > accurate way of targeting that sledge! I may have to rent a jack hammer > again. I filled the block with cement when I laid the wall nearly 20 years > ago and it turns out I also put some rebar in some of the cavities. I had > forgotten doing that! > > Hope this is helpful > > Dale leavens. > > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: Blake Hardin > To: blindhandyman@yahoogroups.com > Sent: Tuesday, August 24, 2010 7:03 AM > Subject: [BlindHandyMan] hammering a nail in? > > > > hey all hows it going? Ok so when i was little i used to mess around > with hammering nails in and such but i was wondering how do you guys > do it? Like if im just trying to hammer a nail in to a board with a > hammer do i hold the nail with my fingers and try to aim for the nail > with the hamer? That allot of times will end up being my thumb under > the hammer rather than the nail haha. So does your aim just get better > with practis or do you have something you can put the nail in to hold > it so you wont have to use your fingrs? > > > > > [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] > > > > ------------------------------------ > > Send any questions regarding list management to: > blindhandyman-ow...@yahoogroups.com > To listen to the show archives go to link > http://www.acbradio.org/pweb/index.php?module=pagemaster&PAGE_user_op=view_page&PAGE_id=33&MMN_position=47:29 > Or > ftp://ftp.acbradio.org/acbradio-archives/handyman/ > > The Pod Cast address for the Blind Handy Man Show is. > http://www.acbradio.org/news/xml/podcast.php?pgm=saturday > > Visit the archives page at the following address > http://www.mail-archive.com/blindhandyman@yahoogroups.com/ > > For a complete list of email commands pertaining to the Blind Handy Man > list just send a blank message to: > blindhandyman-h...@yahoogroups.comyahoo! Groups Links > > > >
