How To Hammer A Nail Without Bending It

A lot of men today are clueless when it comes to tools. The increased affluence of the past 50 years led many men to outsource handyman work instead of doing repairs and domicile improvement themselves. And let's face information technology. Men today can be pretty darn lazy. They'd rather play their Xboxes than work on edifice something with their ain bare hands.

Simply knowing how to handle tools is an essential skill every man should, well, have a handle on. Yous'll become more than cocky-reliant, yous'll save coin, and you lot'll enjoy the supremely manly satisfaction of working with your hands. To help the generation of men who never got around to learning how to use tools, nosotros'll be doing a series of posts on basic toolmanship.

To kick off our series on tool use, we showtime with the lowly hammer. To the unskilled, hammering just ways pounding the hell out of something until y'all get the job done. Sure, you could do that, but you lot'll finish upward with crummy results and a tired arm to boot. A wise handyman knows how to use a hammer safely, effectively, and efficiently.

Types of Hammers

Proper hammering begins with selecting the right hammer for the job. Using a hammer for tasks that it's not suited for can event in injury and shoddy work. Below, we give you the skinny on the different types of hammers a homo has to choose from.

xvi ounce claw hammer. If yous've only used i kind of hammer in your life, information technology's probably this one. Its curved back makes it ideal for pulling out nails. This is a must for whatsoever man's toolbox.

16 ounce ripping hammer. When you have a small sabotage task, this is your go-to hammer. Unlike the claw hammer, the back of a ripping hammer is directly. It'southward used for heavy carpentry piece of work, framing houses, and of course, ripping crap upwardly.

Prophylactic mallet. Use a rubber mallet when you hammer a finished-metal surface.

Wooden mallet. Carpenters employ wooden mallets to strike wood chisels during carpentry work.  Don't endeavor drywalling with a wooden mallet. You'll just terminate up with a bunch of splinters in your face later the caput smashes into a 1000000 pieces.

Soft-face hammer. When assembling article of furniture or working on some other decorative wood project, you need a hammer that will drive a smash without marring the surface of the wood. Go with the soft-face hammer for this job. The faces of soft-face hammers are unremarkably made of plastic or rubber.

Ball peen hammer. Ball peen hammers are used in metalworking tasks like center punching and shaping soft metallic.

Bricklayer's hammer. Utilize a bricklayer'south hammer to cut and gear up bricks when laying that new walkway.

Upholster'due south or tack hammer. The smaller face is designed for driving tacks in upholstery work.

Drywall hammer. The serrated confront of this appropriately named hammer gives you lot a meliorate grip on the blast when installing drywall. You tin can use its hatchet-shaped dorsum for cutting drywall.

Huge donkey sledge hammer.For big sabotage jobs, bring out the big guns. Physical, walls, and porcelain bathtubs are no match for a 10 pound sledge hammer. It as well comes in handy at land fairs when attempting to win your daughter a giant teddy acquit.

Parts of a Hammer

Hammer Safety

Use the right hammer for the chore. Don't upholster a couch with a sledge hammer or drive drywall nails with a tack hammer. You won't become the chore washed right, and you might terminate up injuring yourself.

Don't strike a hardened steel surface with a steel hook hammer. Flying metal chips can hurt you or a bystander.

Never use a hammer with a loose or cleaved handle. The hammer caput could come flying off while in use. If you don't desire to explain to your wife why grandma'south people's republic of china cabinet is in a meg pieces, supplant the handle if information technology'due south loose or cracked.

Never employ a hammer with a chipped or croaky head. It'south an blow waiting to happen.

How to Handle a Hammer

Where to hold the hammer. Hold the hammer like you're shaking easily with somebody. When you demand more control over the hammer, like when you're starting a nail, grip the hammer closer to the hammer head. When y'all need power, grip the hammer near the handle's stop.

Starting the nail. Place the boom where you lot want to drive it and hold it between the thumb and forefinger of your not-dominant mitt.  Place your fingers about the superlative of the boom when belongings it. If y'all hold the nail near the bottom, a missed hammer swing will vanquish your fingers betwixt the wood and the hammer. Not a pleasant feeling.

Grip the hammer nigh the heart of the handle. Tap the nail lightly until the nail has sunk into the wood enough that it can stand up on its ain.

If you're driving in nails that are too pocket-sized to hold between your thumb and forefinger, apply this handyman tip: Grab a piece of thin cardboard or thick paper and button the nail through it. Instead of holding onto the nail, you hold onto the cardboard. Remove the cardboard before you finish driving the boom.

For some hardwoods, it's a good thought to drill a airplane pilot hole before yous hammer in a nail. Information technology makes the chore easier and prevents the woods from splitting. Which brings united states to our next betoken-

Preventing forest splitting. In addition to creating a airplane pilot hole, lubricating the nail with beeswax and blunting the nail will also go on the wood from splitting. To blunt a nail, but tap the blast indicate with your hammer. Also, avoid hammering a nail into the grain of the wood.

Swing from the elbow for power; swing from the wrist for control. For maximum power and efficiency, swing from the elbow. When you demand more control and finesse, swing from the wrist. Many hammer newbies try to hammer with only wrist activeness.

Focus on the nail, not the hammer. When hammering, you want to avoid sideways and glancing blows. To score a directly hitting every time, focus on the nail head, not the hammer.

Let the weight of the hammer do the majority of the piece of work. You don't need to use every ounce of strength in your body when hammering. That will only lead to wild swings and bent nails. The weight of the hammer head plus your smoothen swing provides enough force to get the chore done.

Avant-garde Hammering Techniques

Clinching nails. Let's say you drive a smash through a 2×four. The nail is longer than the board is thick, and then when you drive in the nail, the blast's betoken sticks through the lath. You lot don't want to leave those points hanging out to snag people's clothing or scrape their skin. So you'll desire to assure the nail. But strike the tip of the nail at an bending and force it down apartment into the board with calorie-free taps. Sink the tip beneath the surface of the board with a abrupt rap. When you clinch a nail, always assure with the grain. In improver to preventing ripped shirts, clinching also lends a nail greater strength and stability.

Example of toenailing

Toenailing. When you demand to blast one board perpendicular to another, similar in a framing task, bosom out the toenail technique. Toenailing involves driving a nail at an angle through the end of the board to anchor it to another board. To toenail, place one end of the board perpendicular to the board you want to nail information technology to. Drive the boom in at a 60 degree bending.  It can be tricky starting an boom at an angle, so brainstorm by making a pilot pigsty past tapping the nail point direct into the board. In one case you lot have a hole, tip the nail point to the correct angle to finish driving it in. Brace your pes behind the board as you hammer, so the board doesn't motion from its spot. Toenail a second boom on the same side and two more nails on the opposite side.

Removing Nails

Hook hammers are designed to remove nails. Merely slide the claw underneath the boom head. Pull the hammer'southward handle towards you to extract the nail. Here's an quondam trick from grandpa to aid you lot pull nails: Stop the commencement pull back before the hammer's poll touches the surface of the wood. Place a wood cake under the hammer head to provide some leverage. Using the block puts less strain on the hammer's handle and allows you to lift the nail straight up without bending it.

Place a cake under the hammer after the first pull back

Some nail heads are likewise modest for the tongs of the hammer to grasp. To deal with such nails,  hammers are sometimes fabricated with a small-scale v-shaped notch in 1 of the prongs. If yours lacks this feature, you can simply file a 5-shaped notch into ane of the claws with a metallic file.

Further Reading:
Toolmanship: Wrenches
Toolmanship: Screwdriver
Toolmanship: Handsaw
Toolmanship: Hammer

Accept any more than hammering tips? Share them with us in the comments.

Previous Adjacent

Source: https://www.artofmanliness.com/lifestyle/gear/how-to-use-a-hammer/

Posted by: triceobesson76.blogspot.com

Share this post