hand problem from hammering

T

TomW

Joined
Oct 7, 1998
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For the past couple months I've been hammering away quite regularly.
Several hours later I feel pins and needles type numbness in the forearm.
The only time I can recall this type symptom was once from using a hammer drill for long periods of time.
Doesn't happen with the heavy hammers as much as the light one.
Anybody experience similar problems?
 
You may not be doing this, but using your thumb as a guide on top of the hammer handle will lead to problems. Make sure your thumb is wrapped around the side of the handle. Hope your arm heals and you can continue to hammer. You might want to give it a rest and see if it helps.
 
Take a break and let it heal. It's been hard for me to stop hammering for a while but ya gotta do what ya gotta do.
 
Just a thought, I work in the elevator buisness and hammer steal tracks that fork trucks smash out of shape, back in to shape.Snap-on makes a dead blow hammer. Any weight you want they transmitt very little vibration back through the handel and don't bounce.Face of the ballpean is steal and body in plastic filled with sand.plastic is nearly indistructible.
 
That sounds similar to symptoms some people I know with carpal tunnel had. One of their doctors had them do a stretch that helped them quite a bit.

Put your hands in front of you with your palms facing each other. Have one hand with your fingers pointing down and the other with your fingers pointing up. With your fingers from each hand over lapping a little bit, push your hands together firmly. You should feel your wrists stretch right at the base of your palms. Supposedly opens something back up that is working its way closed.I don't know what, or if any of its true, but they claim doing that regularly made a big difference.
 
Tom: I have the same problem and it is called old age.

Did I ever hear that George! ;)

Tom, it's possible you have a pinched nerve. Go easy for a week and see if it clears up.
 
peter nap said:

Tom, it's possible you have a pinched nerve. Go easy for a week and see if it clears up.
Click to expand...




Could even be a pinched nerve up in your neck. :eek:
Neck problems can cause pain all down the arm, and into the hands, or any part of the arm/hand by itself. :confused:

Hope you get better.
 
I have experienced the same thing. I am a schoolteacher and don't hammer much in the winter but quite a bit in the summer. When this problem got out of hand I mentioned it to my brother (a Chiropractor). I was told that it could be a combination of things: one the spinal adjustment could be out between C3 and C5 (I could be mistaken with the numbers), two the muscles could be over worked and not stretched out enough, and three the nerves could be inflamed in the shoulder area. To help the problem he suggested taking Ibuprophen, icing the shoulder/neck area and stretching before and after the work. They helped me a lot.
 
One thing that may help is a modification to the hammer handle that I read about in "the Wonder of Knifemaking", and it helps me some.

Basicly you cut a section out of the center of the hammer handle, if it's already in the hammer head just saw out a U shape and then glue the handle part back in. I'm not sure how to discribe it, but it's like the middle third of the handle shaft is missing and it helps absorb vibrations and give a little harder blow.

I'll hunt up a pic if you want
 
Here you go, This is a 3lb. hammer I did a couple years ago, and a kind of sloppy job at that but it works. When I replace the handle I think the slot needs to be a little longer.

Hope this helps,
 

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Thanks Will, I will post a link to this thread on the Armouring Forum I am part of. Anybody who has ever pounded metal for some time knows the value of any tips to reduce stress on the limbs.

Thanks again

Pad
 
I've been "off the hammer" for a long while now, helping my bad tendonitis to heal up. Thanks to the advice of Max Burnett, I bought some Flex-amin and its been helping a lot. I also use the thermacare heating pads and while I don't believe the long hours of heat really doo much, I do feel it promotes good circulation and helps the tendons to knit-together again.
 
I would listen to Anthony on this. I hang out with blacksmiths a lot and the thumb on top of the hammer handle is what a lot of blacksmiths blame for tingling in their arms. Something about your thumb on top get things out of line in your arm and irritates things.

Check yourself on this and be sure your not doing it. Even if it is not the cause of your problem, it will be the cause of others to come.
 
I've had problems with the wrist of my hammering arm before. A prominent bladesmith told me to always stretch before and after forging. Stretch one arm straight out in front of you with the fingers pointing up to the sky like you are telling someone to stop. With your other hand gently pull back on the fingers of the extended hand.

Then make the extended hand point to the ground, that is by just flipping your hand from the "stop" position downward. Using your other hand fold the thumb of the extended hand to your palm and cup the fingers toward your wrist gently pulling the hand toward you.

I stress the word gently! Do them multiple times for each arm. The hand holding the tongs can develop problems too from the constant squeezing tension. These stretches seem to have solved most of my problems though I did have to lay off forging for a while also.

As stated before in this thread already I also think it is a bad idea to have your thumb on top of the hammer so avoid that.

Do these stretches anytime but especially before beginning to forge. When doing these stretches you should feel the motions in the tendons on the bottom and top of your forearm from your wrist all the way to the elbow.

If all else fails let me tell you about Tom Clark. He is a blacksmith extroadinaire and thought he was going to have to retire from smithing due to injuries. By using a new technique however and Uri Hofi designed hammer he has a new lease on forging and is stronger than ever. I'll try to describe this method though I haven't tried it myself, mainly because it works best with a hammer, like the Hofi (which is also very expensive by the way), that has most of it's mass centered where the handle meets the head. The handle is shortened, like most hammer handles should be anyway, and gripped not far from the head in a loose pinch between the thumb and first finger of the hand! With your elbows tucked in to your side the hammer is raised stright up. At the highest point the butt of the hammer handle is allowed to rotate upwards. On the downstroke the hammer head rotates downward and the face meets work. The rotation imparts great speed to the stroke and since force is a function of speed as well as mass, the blow has geat force without having to "muscle" force into your hammering. I may not have described this method well, but if you have watched him demo you will be a believer. The handle has to be rather short with this method because

Here is a link to a little information on him with a picture:

http://www.altuit.com/webs/altuit2/Blacksmith/WhoWhatWhere.htm

He's a tough wirey little dude but can do more work smithing than men twice his size!
 
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