Awesome Hammers

The guys at the Hydraulic Press Channel have been trying to get a hammer to explode under the crushing weight of their 150-ton press. Despite their best efforts, they couldn’t get it to happen. Will adding some liquid nitrogen help make their explosive dreams a reality? Hit play and find out.

After building and restoring a number of power tools for their workshop, Black Beard Projects wanted to put them to use. In this video, see how they heated a thick steel rod and formed it into the head of an elegant Japanese-style tool known as a Dog Head hammer. We love the color of its heat-treated finish and burnt wood handle.

Quit driving tent stakes with rocks, and do it the right way with MSR’s modern stake hammer. It has a durable stainless steel head and lightweight aluminum handle and weighs just 11 oz. As a bonus, it has a built-in bottle opener so you can celebrate setting up your campsite. While you’re at it, grab some MSR Groundhog stakes.

ACLIM8’s camping axe and hammer has a unique design that allows its head to pivot inward, protecting its sharp stainless steel blade edge when not in use. Its glass-reinforced nylon handle can be upgraded with optional modules including a drop-point knife and a folding saw. They also make an expensive titanium version.

The guys from How Ridiculous add a new weapon to their arsenal of destructive toys with the largest working hammer on the planet. They worked with DSM Consulting Engineers to build the 22-foot tool that can reset to its upright position using a hydraulic ram. Its 3-ton hammerhead brings the pain to anything in its way.

Illustrating just how interdependent the world has become, artist Neil Mendoza built The Fragility of Complexity, a motorized, kinetic art installation composed of a row of hammers that rotate perilously close to a series of moving light bulbs. Neil says only a single light bulb was broken during its construction.

Unless you spend a lot of time making things, you might think a hammer is a hammer. But as expert builder Adam Savage explains, a properly-equipped workshop needs several very different kinds of hammers. We also recommend Adam’s book Every Tool’s a Hammer.

Artist Bobby Duke has been known to make little things out of other things. This time out, he took a big rusty bolt and worked away at it until it turned into the head of a miniature hammer. He got the wood from the handle of a full-size hammer for added realism.

After building a larger-than-life utility knife and a huge screwdriver, Jackman Works is adding another tool to his giant-sized collection. This time he made an Estwing hammer fit for Paul Bunyan, carving the 8-foot-long, 90 pound monster out of reclaimed southern yellow pine. We’re gonna need a bigger workbench.

After making an axe shaped like a hand, Dirk from The Metalist thought his tool collection could use another hand. Or, more precisely, a fist. In this video, Dirk takes an old sledgehammer and makes it look like a clenched fist, ready to deliver blows to any building materials that stand in its way.

Fred Conlon’s whimsical metalwork is all over SLC, especially his mischievous monsters made from industrial scrap and old tools. “Proudly made in the USA from worldwide junk” is the Sugarpost motto. He really nailed it with office supplies like a pliers pen cup, wrench desk caddy, and Hammer Hits Nail business card holder.

DeWalt’s hammer tacker features a structure made from carbon fiber composite. This reduces weight by up to 45%, and its rubberized handle and ergonomic shape are designed to reduce vibration and impact on its user. It drives 5/16″, 3/8″, and 1/2″ heavy duty staples, and has an anti-jam mechanism.

This multi-functional, light-duty hand tool is the perfect thing to keep in your car trunk or kitchen utility drawer. It combines a ratcheting screwdriver and nut driver with multiple bits, and doubles as a hammer and a bottle opener. It comes with a bonus flex extender for reaching difficult spots.

The AM-V2 is a 5-in-1 hand tool for outdoor living. Its carbon fiber reinforced nylon handle connects with three different interchangeable heads to provide a shovel, axe, hammer, saw, and a tent-peg puller that doubles as a bottle opener. A 2-stage CAM lock ensures a secure connection between hammer and tool.

After reading Adam Savage’s book Every Tool’s a Hammer, maker Peter Brown was inspired to try and use the book itself as a hammer. To turn it into a useful tool, he had to coat each and every page of the book with resin to harden it into a sturdy laminate known as Micarta – often used for knife scales.

Fiskars‘ modern series of hammers, sledgehammers, and mauls are designed to dramatically reduce shock and vibration, easing fatigue and injury risk, while increasing efficiency. Fiskars says their design produces up to 4X less shock than wood-handled tools.

Michael David Young’s patent-pending framing hammer can be loaded with sets of collated framing nails, which it can eject one at a time when you press a button on the side. It has a safety lock so that the hammer can be used like a traditional one.

JC Hammer’s Cutting Edge Magnetic Hammer is designed to be used with metal or plastic cap nails, roofing nails and drawing nails. It has a built-in utility knife with an easily replaceable blade, while its magnetic hammer head has an integrated claw.

Blacksmith Alec Steele and students training at his workshop provide a condensed look at how layers of molten steel are repeatedly smashed together, first by machine, then by hand to create a pair of stunning damascus hammers.

Smash and grab. Walls and nails, that is. DeWalt’s upcoming hammer has an oversized striking face and a wedge on the handle to make it easier to tear through drywall, floor boards and more. It also has a 2×4 gripper and a three-layer grip.

Need an axe but all you have lying around the shop is a hammer? Miller Knives transforms one into the other, through a painstaking process that mostly involves pounding and grinding the hammerhead’s ends until they take on the desired form.

iThinking injected a bit of whimsy into an everyday tool. The Rhino Hammer has a base and head that, well, looks like a rhinoceros. It has a telescoping handle and is made of rubber, aluminum and steel.

We first heard about the Cole-Bar Hammer back in 2009. Its inventors are now ready to mass-produce it, but they need your help. In return you get a chance to be one of the first to own this brilliantly versatile multi-tool.