Stopped by a garage sale and an old lady showed me a trick with a hammer

Last Saturday I was poking around a garage sale in my neighborhood and this little old lady named Doris saw me looking at a beat-up hammer. She grabbed it and said "watch this," then wrapped a rubber band tight around the handle near the head. She explained it stops the handle from splitting when you miss a nail or hit something too hard. I never thought of that in my life and I've been using hammers for 20 years. She sold me that hammer for 50 cents and I tried the rubber band trick on my own claw hammer at home. Took about 10 seconds to set up and it actually feels different when I strike now. Anyone else got a cheap fix like that for tools that get abused?

2 comments

2 Comments

dakotam179d ago

Wait is that right about stopping the handle from splitting? I mean I thought rubber bands just added grip more than anything. The splitting thing usually happens when the wood gets dried out and cracked from weather not from hitting stuff wrong. I could be totally off base though idk. But I did try a similar trick where you wrap electrical tape around the handle of a file so it doesn't slip when you're really bearin down on it. That one actually works pretty good.

mia4429d ago

Wait have you ever thought about what happens when the rubber band gets old and dry rots? Because that's the real kicker with this trick. I tried it once on a sledgehammer handle and forgot about it for like six months. Then one day I'm swinging and the band just snaps and flies off. Not a huge deal but it left this sticky gunk all over the wood that was a pain to clean off. The electrical tape thing you mentioned is probably better since it's not gonna degrade as fast. But still if you're worried about splitting I think you gotta look at the wood itself more than the wrap. A good coat of boiled linseed oil does more for stopping cracks than any band or tape ever will. Just my two cents though.