Quote Originally Posted by Frank S View Post
Back in the early to mid 1980s When I had a couple of boat dock and marina construction projects going on, one guy working for me had a habit of choking the hammer head. You could hear him just whaling away at the nails 15 to 20 strokes per nail, even missing the nail head or bending the nails half the time.
Is something wrong with your hammer handle I asked him.
No why? he asked.
I thought it might be broken because you are holding it at the head is all. By the way you don't get paid by the number of hammer strokes you get paid by the number of decking boards laid in a day.
But Boss these ring shank nails won't go in straight.
That's because you are not driving them in you are allowing the fibers of the wood dictate where the nail goes. you bend so many nails because you don't hit them consistently square on the head because you have no control of the hammer since you can't get a proper grip at the neck, the griping part of the handle is behind the palm of your hand, this is killing your hands as well, plus by taking so many strokes to drive the nail the fibers in the wood are being torn and the nail won't have the proper holding strength. You need to learn how to tap drive set then move on to the next nail. And while you are at it you need a real hammer not that smooth head 16 once cabinet maker's hammer. Get you a 22 or 28 once framer's hammer with a serrated head it will also have a longer handle to deliver more power pert stroke. The fewer strokes you make to drive a nail the better it will hold because it will be driven through faster and not tear the fibers of the wood as much.
He must have went home that evening and practiced driving nails all night because the next day he showed up with a 22 oz. Estwing framers hammer and with no more than 3 or 4 hits he had those 3 1/2" ring nails set
I'm wondering now if they weren't instructed by their boss to do it that way. If you swing a hammer properly and miss the bar you'll probably dent and ding the plastic. If you hold it like a goon you'll probably just smash your hand and save the plastic.