Fig. 35.—Marking Gauge in Use.
34. The hammer (A.) is used by the average wood-worker more than any other tool. The “face” (Fig. 36, a) and the “claws” (b) should be tempered carefully, as they will either bruise or bend if too soft, or break if too hard. The eye (c) is made longer than it is wide, to prevent the head from turning on the handle, and larger at the outside of the head than it is at the neck, so that the handle may be firmly wedged in the eye or socket. The neck (d), by extending upon the handle as it does, adds much to the strength of the connection.
Fig. 36.—Claw Hammer.
a, the face; b, the claws; c, the eye; d, the neck; e, grain of neck.
The handle should be of young, tough, straight-grained hickory, elliptical in section, and of a size to be grasped easily.
The grain should be perfectly straight at the neck, and the annual layers should show lengthwise of the ellipse at the end, as at c. The handle should be fitted and wedged, or “hung” in such a way that a nail may be driven home in a flat surface without the knuckles striking, which means that the center of the handle should be about parallel with the flat surface. A line lengthwise of the head through the eye should exactly coincide with the long, or major, axis of the ellipse at the end of the handle, as at gg, or pounded fingers will result.
Fig. 37.
a, toenailing; b, tacking.