Giant Hammer

B

bladefixation2

Gold Member
Joined
Mar 28, 2004
Messages
1,391
Has anyone ever seen anything like this? I found it recently

Its basically a claw hammer, only two or three times bigger, I cant figure out what its for. The only suggestions I've had so far is maybe someone stole it from the giant at the top of the beanstalk...

The thing next to it is a BIC biro for scale.

hammer.JPG
 
Hey, I'm glad you found that! It's my tack hammer.
(When I get down to brass tacks, I don't mess around :) )

Actually, it's a normal hammer from Texas.
You Brits have no idea how big everything is in Texas.
Like George Bush's intellect.
 
Didn't they use those for barn building or some such where they use them BIG nails (bigger than 6 penny)?

That, or a piece of "The Wall" memorabilia.
 
Any idea how heavy the head is? I've got a couple 28oz framing hammers (my favorite hammer :D ) and its tough to tell, but the head doesn't look all that much bigger on that. It just appears to have a long skinny handle.
The other oddity, is that it doesn't have a straight claw like framing hammers normally do :confused:
 
Looks like some shade-tree engineering to me.

Picture a guy under a shade tree whittling down an axe handle to fit his hammer. :D
 
Any idea how heavy the head is? I've got a couple 28oz framing hammers (my favorite hammer ) and its tough to tell, but the head doesn't look all that much bigger on that. It just appears to have a long skinny handle.
Click to expand...

There is no weight marked on the hammer head but its quite a bit bigger than a regular claw hammer, the pictures below are of the hammer next to a standard 20oz claw hammer. Also the claw is very wide like its designed for pulling out something quite big

The shaft doesnt look like its been added on at a later date, appart from some rust on the head from age it doesnt look like its ever been used

Its probably at least 20 years old but could be 50...

hammer2.jpg



Didn't they use those for barn building or some such where they use them BIG nails (bigger than 6 penny)?
Click to expand...

Someone suggested it could be for knocking in the big nails they use for holding railroad tracks into wooden sleepers?

The farm idea could be right, I inherited the hammer and certainly my grandad used to run a farm a long time before they had nailguns!

Esav, if thats your tack hammer you must build some seriousley big cabinets... :D
 
Someone suggested it could be for knocking in the big nails they use for holding railroad tracks into wooden sleepers?
Click to expand...

Those aren't nails, they're spikes, and you'd need something heavier than even your big hammer for them. They use sledge hammers.
 
Looks like an early framing hammer...Railroad spikes use a much larger hammer but one that is long [not a typical sledge hammer ].
 
Thanks guys, after reading about framing hammers I think youre right

We dont really use timber frame construction here hence my confusion!
 
Someone suggested it could be for knocking in the big nails they use for holding railroad tracks into wooden sleepers?
Click to expand...
I worked on a crew building a railroad spur (by hand). We did have a couple of regular sledgehammers, but the prefered tool was a special spike maul. The handle was about 3' or 4' long, the "face" of the hammer was small-ish and round, and the steel part was long and slender. I couldn't find a decent Google photo of a spike hammer or spike maul anywhere, but here's a publicity shot of a railroad maul in use:
bonacci.gif


Sorry, but that large hammer of your's is not something that would be useful for driving railroad spikes.

-Bob
 
If it belonged to me, I can tell you exactly what it would be used for. After I badly botched up a repair job with the little hammer, I would "fix" it with the bigger hammer.
 
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