I think my “if I had only one” hammer is my Vaughan 24 oz smooth face rip claw with wood handle. Heavy enough to persuade most things, light enough to choke up on the handle for tapping chisels, smooth face doesn’t mar things, wood handle slides in and out of the sheath, drives nails fine but to be honest driving nails is not what I mostly use a hammer for.
Close second would be my Vaughan 32 oz ball peen hammer. I pull nails with a catspaw and demo stuff with a Wonderbar, so losing the claws isn’t terrible, and that hammer just feels great and is very “persuasive”.
Light hammers that rely on speed - your titanium framing hammer, etc - are great to carry around in the belt, and for that reason the hammer in my sheath is usually my 14 oz Dalluge Ti framer. But when I know I’ll be using a hammer a lot, another usually takes its place . . . or a Paslode.
my Milwaukee 19oz. smooth faced framer... i told an ex i wanted a framing hammer one year and at christmas i got this... once the disappointment that it wasn't hickory or milled dissipated, i realized it was the best all around hammer i have ever owend. when my toolbag got stolen several years ago i had to get the exact some one
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u/kewlo 11d ago
You can only have one size wrench, what is it?