Building A Shed | HQ

When you think of a carpenter one of the images that springs to mind is them banging nails in with a hammer. Typically it would be a Claw hammer. Every carpenter will have, or should have, a claw hammer in their tool box!
Most workshops nowadays will use compressors to power nail guns when building a shed or other carpentry jobs as it’s a much faster way of working but, the workers will still have a claw hammer at the ready in case of any mistakes. On the road it is not always feasible to take a compressor with you and portable compressors tend to lack the power needed to drive larger nails so, you need your claw hammer.

Claw hammers can be described as ‘T’ shaped; the handle being the vertical line and the head being the horizontal line. This is a very rough description as the head is in fact far from a straight line; the impact end is short and cylindrical with a flat end for hammering and the other end is bent down towards the handle, with a flat, cleft end.
It is this cleft or, ‘claw’ end that gives the clawhammer its name. Its primary use is pulling nails out of wood and its secondary use is prying two separate pieces of timber apart. A variation on this is the ‘rip hammer’ which is the same apart from the cleft end is straighter, becoming less like a claw. The rip hammer is more geared towards ‘ripping’ and prying boards apart and is useful for hard to reach nails are close to walls or joints as the handle is at a right angle when in the pulling position; rather than leaning into the angle. I usually have both types with me when out building a shed, but either one will be ok for most garden constructions.

Types of Claw hammer

There are various types of builds of claw hammer, the most common is the one-piece made from forged heat-treated steel where, the handle is integrated into the head and is covered with a polymer sleeve which adds comfort & reduces vibrations. You can also get wooden handled claw hammers, the handle is usually made from ‘Hickory’ and the head

I would recommend buying a 20oz hammer as they are the most versatile, they have enough weight to drive in large nails but are not cumbersome so can easily remove nails. I always use one-piece hammers, as you know they can take the pressure and strain of a lot of nail pulling and panel prying. The last consideration is ‘waffle’ or ‘finish’ heads. This refers to the impact surface, finish heads are smooth and slightly rounded whilst ‘waffle’ heads have a cross-hatched surfaced. Finish heads are better as they don’t mark the timber; waffle heads are only really used for industrial framing jobs where the speed is the only concern.
You should now know what type of hammer you’ll need for the types of jobs I will be discussing in this blog. Keep checking back or, even easier, subscribe to my blog by email or RSS and you’ll be notified of my next post.

..and remember: watch your fingers!