View Full Version : Dumber than a bag of hammers...
I need to get two ball pein hammers for some metalworking I'm doing. You know what they are, right? (aka "machinist's hammer" or "engineer's hammer".)
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/cd/Ball-peen_hammer_380mm.JPG
First stop - the local hardware stores. Very poor selection, high prices, hammers were poorly-balanced, the handles were flawed, the ball-ends were only roughly ball-shaped, with ridges or obvious flat spots, the flat ends were badly dressed and had pitting.
Second stop - local automotive store. Same problems, except the handles were very nice.
Third stops, on the mainland yesterday - Home Depot, Lowe's. Same exact problem, even on the American-made brands.
These hammers would not work for many of their intended purposes. The flawed heads would constantly mar or damage the surface of the piece being worked on, and the poor balance and hammers would make work inefficient, and likely cause physical harm to the user over time.
It is as if the world has forgotten what hammers are actually used for. These are hammer-shaped objects, and about as costly as a real hammer, but are in essence useless.
I complained about this yesterday to a blacksmith I know. Tomorrow he's dropping me off two hammers, hand-made from scratch, cost about 20% over what the big box stores are charging for pure junk.
I am sad.
shadowmoss
3-14-12, 7:37pm
If I didn't know for a fact that my Grandmother's hammer is in my toolbox at home I'd be all over you for stealing it. The picture looks just like it. I keep it because I like the way it looks and feels. Just enough hammer for what I need a hammer for. I'm usually not framing a house.
Not sure why you are sad. I'm sure you will get quality. Leave the junk for those who don't recognize it for what it is.
Not sure why you are sad.
I'm sad because it doesn't seem possible for a normal person going to a normal store to purchase such a basic piece of technology as a ball pein hammer.
If the Peak Oil/Crash of Civilization/Club Orlov types guessed it right, it'll be pretty embarassing when we discover nobody remembers how to make or use basic tools anymore.
I think lack of quality is a real problem in most mass-produced stuff these days. And inconsistency of quality. I am having a hard time finding well-made clothing items unless I buy older stuff at thrift stores. Even the old standbys like Lands End and Talbots have cheapened the quality of their fabric and clothing in recent years. I have a shed full of old tools from my father and grandfather - guess we'll hang on to them.
early morning
3-14-12, 8:43pm
I understand why you are sad. DH and I spent an inordinate amount of time trying to find a decent hand-saw after ours went missing. We aren't cabinet makers; we just wanted a nice saw that would allow us to make a straight cut through a 2 x 6 (which isn't, of course!) piece of wood, without bowing or having the handle get loose. Finally he remembered a box of stuff that was shipped to us after his grandfather died. Yes - there were saws! Even without having them sharpened, they are far superior to the crap at the local hardware store (which is just a small version of a big-box - uninformed sales people, everything shrink or clam packaged, most of it cheap and made in China... ). I loved going to the local hardware store as a kid, with my father or grandfather - they had everything, much of it loose in bins, and everyone who worked there knew how to do whatever it was you were doing.
It's only within the past couple of years that I learned what a ball pein hammer was.
I needed a small hammer to do various things (right now I am doing an upholstery project using tacks) and DH said: so, do you want a ball pein hammer? And I said, ummm, doh, what is that? And then I learned, and yes, that IS what I needed. I just like small hammers.
Hit up all of the estate sales for used tools. In my city there are a lot of senior citizens who have a stash. When they sail off into the next land or to care centers, you can nab their tools.
I just like small hammers.
I wasn't even looking for wee ones, I wanted a 2 pounder and a 4->4.5 pounder. I want to use them for actual peening :-)
Oddly, I had an easier time locating cutler's hammers, because nobody even mass produces those anymore, but a handful of people still make them by hand once or twice a year, and word gets out :-)
In 1978ish, my ex-partner went into the hardware store in Anacortes, shopping for a 24 oz. framing hammer. She asked where they were, and the shopkeeper refused to show her or sell her one because she was female. Alrighty, then!
She asked where they were, and the shopkeeper refused to show her or sell her one because she was female.
http://www.edvard-munch.com/Paintings/anxiety/scream_3.jpg
Some days I'm amazed we ever made it out of the trees.
Tell me about it! i tried to buy a kaiser blade but every hardware store I went to didn't even know what I was talking about. Almost all of them said 'why don't you just use a weed eater"
Tell me about it! i tried to buy a kaiser blade but every hardware store I went to didn't even know what I was talking about. Almost all of them said 'why don't you just use a weed eater"
Oy vey! Really?
I've mentioned this before, but I was amazed by what I found during a recent trip to my Mom's house. Among other things she still has (and frequently uses) the same brass nozzle on her garden hose, card table and chairs, flashlight, clothes pins, glass mixing bowls, desk lamp, bathrobe, copper clad sauce pans, extension ladder, trouble light (on the end of an extension cord) and several hand tools that were in the house when I was growing up. All that stuff, and a fair amount more, has lasted 40 years and shows no sign of quitting. Most of the same items in our house are considered disposable and I have extremely limited opportunity to buy quality replacements when the time comes. Like bae, that makes me sad.
On a cool note, when Dad passed away his sons (no daughters) split up his tools. My younger brothers obviously didn't get to spend as much time in the shop with Dad as I did because they mostly stopped after screwdrivers and pliers. They passed right over all the really good stuff including a set of ball-peen hammers that were passed down to my Dad and now to me.
I'm sad because it doesn't seem possible for a normal person going to a normal store to purchase such a basic piece of technology as a ball pein hammer.
If the Peak Oil/Crash of Civilization/Club Orlov types guessed it right, it'll be pretty embarassing when we discover nobody remembers how to make or use basic tools anymore.
I understand, although I haven't been searching for a ball pein hammer. I sew and do a number of other kinds of needlework, and after many years of not having time for those hobbies, I'm now retired and getting back to them.
Well, good luck finding old-fashioned embroidery supplies and a number of other needlework items I used to use. Even the few I've been able to find don't have the quality I remember from years ago. I was able to get a small embroidery hoop, but it has a plastic fabric tightener that won't last long. The embroidery thread isn't up to snuff. It's now assumed that all embroidery is being done on a sewing machine, so iron-on pattern transfers don't seem to be available anywhere.
I used to have a really high quality ball pein hammer, which I was required to buy for metal sculpture class in college. Artists are pretty fussy about the quality of their tools, so if there's an art school or college within a reasonable traveling distance, you might want to check with them regarding tools.
loosechickens
3-15-12, 2:36pm
Boy, I agree, bae, Gregg, and others........we are lucky in that we have tools, etc., that belonged to grandfathers and fathers, and haunt thrift stores for older stuff that is better made, but it's a huge problem.
I have a granny afghan that was made as a wedding gift for my mother in 1941, by an elderly aunt who made it with wool scraps from many years of knitting, so much of the yarn in it is probably far older, maybe as much as forty years older than the actual age of the afghan. Yet this afghan, which my mother used, and I use, regular, is as lovely as when it was knitted more than 70 years ago, and with yarns that may now be a hundred years old or more. The colors are vibrant, the wool is of excellent quality, and I am sure, it was just ordinary dime store yarn when purchased.
By contrast, I made a quilt in 1980 for my daughter.....it's been well taken care of, kept out of sunlight, etc., yet that fabric in the quilt has faded and the quilt is old and worn looking, in thirty years. Yet quilts, similarly cared for, but a hundred years old or more still have fabric in good condition and dyes holding the color as well.
It's as though we have given up on the whole idea of quality of materials, tools, etc. Nothing is made for the long haul, and it IS really sad.
I put every bit as much work into that quilt as a woman did into a similar one a hundred years ago, all hand quilted, etc., yet because of the lack of quality of materials available, that quilt is destined to have a small percentage of the life as a quilt made many, many decades before.
It IS sad, and what is sadder is that those who are younger often don't even know what they have lost. I really DO relate.
In 1978ish, my ex-partner went into the hardware store in Anacortes, shopping for a 24 oz. framing hammer. She asked where they were, and the shopkeeper refused to show her or sell her one because she was female. Alrighty, then!
YIKES!!! About that same era (circa mid-late 1970's) I was a ship's engineer (mechanic) in the coast guard and got to buy all of the tools we needed (those $10,000 ball pein hammers). While no one ever directly refused to sell me anything, there sure was alot of skeptism as to just why a girl would ever need such a thing. Before I went in the CG , when I was still in high school, I worked in a motorcycle repair shop and lets just say, no one seemed to trust me to fix their bikes or really with anything :-)! Ah how times have changed - or have they?
Bae - I have a pink ball pein hammer if you want to borrow it - you'll look sweet and sassy wielding that :-)! I actually have several and WAY too many tools (Hope Fawn doesn't read this:-)!). Am getting rid of most of them and just keeping a very small toolbox in my truck. My greatest hope in life is to never have to use a tool to have to repair anything ever again! Or use a weed whipper or lawn mower or anything that is "work" :-)!
I think the issue is people way back then knew much less about capitalism. Imagine making good quality stuff that lasts forever, how are you going to get low cost items, high short term profits and repeat business out of that? Actually they made a lot of junk back then as well, it's just much harder these days to find the good stuff. It doesn't fit well in a mass marketed world.
I'm glad you were able to buy what you wanted local.
Furniture! I forgot furniture! Forget the furniture stores. We always look to antique or second hand stores for furniture. So much better made, and will outlast the new stuff every time. And chances are, even with antiques, it will cost less! And be made from that unusual material...wood! >8)
I'm glad you have a friend who can make them. That's handy.
If you're ever down here by PDX, Bae, visit Red Pig tools. or online: redpigtools.com
Tell me about it! i tried to buy a kaiser blade but every hardware store I went to didn't even know what I was talking about. Almost all of them said 'why don't you just use a weed eater"
Geez. I thought everyone knew you can't cut your Kaiser rolls with a weed eater...
..... i tried to buy a kaiser blade....
"Some folks call it a sling blade. I call it a kaiser blade"
"Some folks call it a sling blade. I call it a kaiser blade"
Yea, I thought of that. :D And I almost said that to one fellow but then thought he probably wouldn't get it.
I can do a mean Billy Bob Thornton ;)
Furniture! I forgot furniture! Forget the furniture stores. We always look to antique or second hand stores for furniture. So much better made, and will outlast the new stuff every time. And chances are, even with antiques, it will cost less! And be made from that unusual material...wood! >8)
Plus wood doesn't offgas like this fiberboard crap. I'm gradually switching over to wood or metal everything, from kitchen utensils to bookcases.
Check out antique farm sales.
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