My Last Sledgehammer

One of my very first hand tools that I had to have was a sledgehammer.  Back in the day of being mentored by a good man...John Winterrowd, a very well liked builder and outstandingly good carpenter....John set about teaching me the fine art of Batter Boards....Winterrowd style.  After the rough grading and scoring the property came the chore of siting the new house location.  For John...simply a few surveyor stakes in the ground for the front line a side line for the loader operator to judge where to level or dig out.

Surveyor stakes for this are temporary and usually just a pointed 1x2 with a square cut top to hammer in.  After the soil has been scored (or tilled by backdragging the loader bucket teeth)...the soil was loose enough to set these temp stakes in with a framing hammer rather than lug around a 8# to 20# sledgehammer.  Once graded down or out...a quick taping to make sure everything was in good shape followed with left over lumber that was cut and pointed on another job to set the boundary corners.

These had  to be driven in for permanence during the next few phases of starting the foundation.  Which required a for real sledgehammer...which John supplied in the form of an 8# hammer and stood back smoking a Chesterfield while I attempted to set the outside corners.  If the hammer is too light or the swing is insufficient, the stake takes it's time and in all cases starts to run out of plumb...especially if the indentured servant (raising hand) is inaccurate on using a saw to cut the point.  With a heavier hammer and a good swing, the wood slides in; with a boulder busting weight hammer and heavy swing...the wood explodes.

Me on the Job A Few Years Ago

Soooo....my choice for my first sledgehammer was a 12# hammer with a hickory handle that I got for about $3.50 from West Lumber.  That hammer lasted quite a while...more correctly the slug of steel lasted quite a while but the hickory handles only take so much abuse.  Somewhere into the latter 80's the hammer was replaced with a 14# hammer with a fiberglass handle for about $8.00 from Humphries Concrete...across the street from West Lumber/Associated Distributors.


Sledgehammers are used by framers, concrete placers and every so often with a plumber all of which would ask if I had one for them to borrow which was a 50% chance of saying "say goodbye to this hammer" once it was out of the back of my Scout and in the hands of others.  They are very important tools that don't use electricity or air pressure for driving things into the ground or breaking through masonry or concrete.  However...the choice today is NOT to work up a sweat with a sledgehammer...but to buy a compressor or impact drill/hammer to do the same thing.  However one still has to work up a sweat dragging over the compressor, long heavy drop cords for 15-20 amp tools and/or air hoses in order to do the same thing as the sledgehammer.

Being of the lazy variety...I'm good with a sledgehammer on the job in lieu of popping a circuit breaker for other very expensive tools to purchase or rent.  More correctly...the lazy and cheap variety.

I've a new project that will require bashing loose about 800 lin.ft. of elderly pressure treated lumber...2x10 joists and beams...but yet again, someone has borrowed my 14# sledgehammer with the indestructible hammer as it's no where to be found.  20 - 30 years worth of service and somehow it's walked away.

At 68...my back, shoulders, neck and falling arches appear to be giving their notice....or at least they tend to complain all day long...and night.  I appear to be falling into the category that would be fitting to the already used title..."no country for old men" which I thought was a good time to hang up the tools.  It's harder than you think after this many years...I keep looking at better and easier ways to get things done which is usually the first job for any newbie into construction.  It may be the same task as hoisting a 8# sledgehammer...but standing at a different stance or if on a slope...standing on the downhill side of the target....as well as the right weight hammer for the job. 

For much of the handy-man-Dan stuff around the house...it's better lighting devices to see what I'm doing when it comes to "cordless" anything.  I'm no longer adverse to battery powered screwdrivers, drills or impact wrenches as these save a lot of Tylenol intake for arthritis from repetitive hand and wrist twisting.  Heavy soles shoes and boots for lateral support high ride boots or lace up shoes with sufficient sole strength to allow for long periods of time on a ladder.  Stuff I could have and should have been using years ago....but just like the choice of sledgehammer vs air or electric hammers....lazy and cheap continues to haunt me.

It's a bit of getting caught off-guard with shopping about for a replacement sledgehammer at this age.  Foremost will be the fact that the Hammers are going to start at $20; but the ones you really should have are going to be around $50.  It's always a bit of a shock seeing a simple "dumb" tool (thus the phrase "dumb as a bag full of hammers") applies when a slug of steel with a wood or fiberglass handle is more than 10 times the amount of my first hammers.

The other creeping issue would be that in the time of making that first $3.50 sledgehammer purchase...the whole world was still opening up for me to swing that hammer into making a living and a business as part of my tool inventory.  Tools come and go...obviously.  So do the guys and gals that are swinging them eventually and with this first tool of the industry for me to own that is integral to the staking out a lot or homesite at this tender age it doesn't sit well today that when I find the right sledgehammer...it most likely will be my last sledgehammer. 

This morose thought is either driven by sore muscle memories this morning or my still being a cheap bastid that hates to spend that type of money for a chunk of steel on a piece of hardwood.  I suppose I'll be forced to look into Estate Sales and pawn shops for experienced and seasoned tools....rather than the low class and sub-standard care personnel and owners of a....Tool Mill  display at a big box selling knock offs and sub-standard hand tools at a realistic price.

When I hang up my tool bag...I'll donate my sledge hammer to Gallagher.

  

when I retire...my sledgehammer will just be warming up into....Show Business!!