THE HAMMER
Fig. 130. Hammers
This common tool is made in at least thirty different forms, and some styles in nine or ten different weights. For woodwork, the adze-eye claw hammer, weight sixteen ounces, will answer all requirements. For use with brads as small as 3⁄8 inch, a brad hammer of three or four ounces is desirable. Both of these forms are provided with claws for withdrawing nails. ([Fig. 130].)
Claw hammers are comparatively modern inventions, and there are men now living who, when serving their apprenticeship, were obliged to withdraw their nails with a pair of pinchers. At that period all nails were wrought by hand, and houses are standing to-day on which the clapboards are still held in place by nails forged on an anvil by hand.