Hammer of the Week – 2014

August 4-August 8: The Self-Loading Tack Hammer

What do PEZ dispensers and hammers have in common?

Tacks are too small to hold and hit with a hammer, so the innovation of the magnetic hammer head in the 1880s was important. It allowed carpenters and upholsterers to pick up tiny tacks and whack them directly into surfaces without smashing their fingers.

The tacks they would use were labeled “sterilized”. Why? Truly talented carpenters would hold tacks in their mouths—sometimes three different sizes at a time—and spit them onto the hammerhead. But swinging a hammer up towards your mouth poses an obvious risk to your teeth…not to mention that swallowing a tack would be a dangerous and painful experience.

In 1903, Charles Kennedy invented this hammer to fix those problems. This magnetic tack hammer is pre-loaded, so the user can turn the hammer downward, push the lever, and automatically load a tack onto the head. It works, in fact, quite a bit like the popular candy dispenser—though the objects it dispenses aren’t very tasty.

July 28-August 1: The Patter

This hammer was designed for hitting your face. No, seriously.

July 21-25:  Ball Bearing Hammer

We have many types of advertising hammers in our museum, but perhaps one of the strangest is the C.H. Fargo & Company’s “Ball-Bearing” Bicycle Shoes hammer.

Located on Market and Quincy Sts. in Chicago, C.H. Fargo & Co developed a line of shoes, eventually marketing over 100 styles of “Men’s, Boys’, Ladies’, and Misses’ Bicycle and Athletic Footwear.” The company’s reason for the use and copyright of the “Ball-Bearing” name was that: “The shoes are so constructed as to give the ball of the foot the greatest ease and freedom for action.”  

Because women’s shoes tended to go up to the knee and required more cloth, they were more expensive. Men’s shoes were $3.00 for black, $3.50 for tan, while women’s shoes ranged from $4.50 to $8.00.  

A guide for Skagway’s Chilkoot Trail from the 1900s suggested that women wear these shoes while hiking back and forth across the 33-mile pass. The women’s shoes were heeled, and they had to hike in dresses.  Gold Rush era ladies were probably tougher than the men.

One of the features often advertised for these shoes was their Pratt Lace Fasteners, which held the laces without tying them – perhaps the precursor to Velcro?

In order to advertise their shoes, the company decided to expand their manufacturing process to include hammers made from ball bearings.

July 7-11: Dolerite Ball and Royal Porphyry

This dolerite hammer comes from the Roman quarries of Mons Porphyrites, in the Eastern Sahara, Egypt. It is the only source of royal porphyry in the world and is one of the hardest places to get to in the world even today!

Royal porphyry was first discovered in 14 CE and was controlled exclusively by the emperors due to its deep purple color. Even the smallest pieces of this rare rock were used to demonstrate opulence, although the Romans quarried huge pieces of this stone.  In fact, the Pantheon featured 60-foot columns, each weighing 207 tons, carved entirely from porphyry! Although by this time the Romans were using iron tools, dolerite balls like the one exhibited here were still used for more brute smashing work.

After the Fall of the Roman Empire, the site was forgotten until its rediscovery in 1822. However, it remains extremely difficult to get to and is typically visited by archaeologists only once a decade.

June 30-July 4: Gillett Bluing Novelty Hammer

Originally patented in the United States on April 25th, 1882, then in Canada on May 23rd of the same year, this hammer was designed to hold laundry bluing tablets. Egbert W. Gillett (no relation to the razor company), who started a manufacturing business in Chicago and later expanded into Canada, was the inventor.  

Although it’s not commonly used anymore, bluing solution is added to laundry in order to make whites whiter.  It was originally sold in liquid form, but E.W. Gillett’s patent was intended as a unique way to package solid bluing tablets.  In his patent application, he noted that, “it is customary to form the handles of a great variety of implements–such, for example, as ice-picks, stove-lid lifters, tack-hammers…and many small tools-with hollow reticulated or open-work handles, usually-made of cast metal.”  The bluing tablets were sold inside the open handle. Because the packaging likely cost three times as much as the product, these hammers weren’t around for very long–but our museum has two of them!

June 23-27: Double Claw Hammer

We skipped the HOTW last week to bring you a twofer this time: the double claw hammer. Patented by George F. Voight of San Francisco in 1902, the double claw hammer was designed to pull out nails of different lengths without bending the nail. The Double Claw Hammer Company was so convinced that their invention would be successful that they wrote a poem to accompany each sale of the hammer.

The Hammer with the Double Claws
Of merits it is full
It draws attention and draws nails
The Hammer with a pull

One need not hammer in his head
This truth–that it’s all right,
The double grip that cannot slip
Pulls with a double might.

To use it is a hammerfest,
As oft you hear it said,
For it drives nails and business
And hits nails on the head.

While others give the jarring lick
That loses half its force,
The Double Claw, it does the trick
And sends nails home, of course.

If you observe the Sectional View
You’ll see it’s firmly set;
It can’t fly off the handle–you
Won’t either–you can bet.

It comes to fill a long old want
And nothing is so slick,
It is indeed a drawing card
And lightning on its trick.

This Hammer’s balanced to a T,
That’s why it is so prized;
The head will hit the nail, you see,
With blow that’s centralized.

It is the Handiest Hammer yet
And satisfies the boss
It goes on its good shape, you see,
And on its Double Claws

The old time hammer you have used
And spoiled nails with its claws,
But then you well can be excused–
It was the best that was!

The hammer by a blacksmith wrought
And often whopperjaw*,
That worked no better than it ought
To either drive or draw.

The Double Claw pulls straight and out,
Does double work because
It is Perfection, past all doubt,
And has the Double Jaws.

It tells the nails to come or die,
And they’ve no time to wait;
This Hammer does no crooked work–
It yanks the nail out straight.

You drive a nail that’s out of reach,
High up or far across,
Beyond your utmost two-hand stretch,
If fixed in these Two-Claws.

You see, it is a reaching thing
That surely has a cinch
Because this Hammer’s Double Claws
Provide the needed clinch.

The Double Claw is wrought of Steel
And made to stand all brunt;
It is the Hammer that’s ideal
And always at the front.

The Hammer with the Double Jaws
It’s worth its cost and more;
Made right up to Pure Hammer Laws
Which were not known before.

In Hardware stores it has the call
And all men know the cause–
It is the Hammer of the age
And has the Double Claws.

*Whopperjaw (adj.): Not straight, askew, crooked

Now how’s that for marketing?

June 9-13: Fish Bonker

In celebration of the coming start of the salmon fishing season here in Southeast Alaska, our hammer of the week is a fish bonker. While this hammer was specifically designed for getting fish to lie still in the boat, lots of objects can serve as fish bonkers. Some folks carve their own out of wood and fill them with lead, while others use PVC pipes.  

Our fish bonker is made of stainless steel and includes a dual-bladed knife that both fillets and scales. Unfortunately, the tip of our knife has broken off and the blade lacks the kilogram markings that typically come with a Puma fishing tool. The ball at the end of the bonker is used as a way to hit fish over the head and also serves as a counterweight for weighing your catch.

June 2-6: Hammer Autographed by Tim Allen

Some of the best hammers in our collection were donations to the museum, and one of our favorites was donated by a celebrity. Ever watch Home Improvement? Well, we have a hammer signed by Tim ‘The Tool Man’ Taylor himself! (Okay, so it’s technically signed by Tim Allen, but that makes it even better.)

May 26-30: Dibbler

This unique planting tool (date unknown) was hand-hewn from an unidentified wood. Typically, garden dibblers (also known as dibbers or dibbles), which were first patented in 1892, are smaller, cone shaped devices designed to poke planting holes in the soil.

This particular dibbler is unusual because it is attached to a handle. This addition would have made it easier for the hard-working farmer to create multiple holes at a time while standing up.

Here, Hammer Museum intern Emily demonstrates how to use our dibbler.

May 19-23: Autopsy Hammer

One of our many medical hammers, this particular autopsy hammer was used between 1862 and 1865. Once the skull had been sawed through, the hammer was used with a chisel to separate the calvarium from the rest of the skull. The hooked end was then used to pry the skull open.  The hammer might also have been used to break other bones.

June

Beggar’s Chicken Hammer

Pictured here are our Beggar’s Chicken Hammers from China. The museum currently has three of these in its collection. Beggar’s Chicken is prepared by covering the bird in clay or dough before cooking and these hammers are used to break the hard shell once it comes out of the oven.
When ordering this in a restaurant, the customer either receives the actual hammer used to break the clay, or they receive a golden souvenir hammer. These particular hammers were used at the Jade Garden restaurant in Hong Kong by the donor who gifted them to the museum. She was the guest of honor in her party and was therefore the one who got to break the clay shell and keep the hammer. The third hammer in our collection is from the Peking Garden Restaurant and was a golden souvenir.

To read one of the many legends about Beggar’s Chicken click the link here.

For a copy of the recipe for Beggar’s Chicken that was displayed with our June Hammer of the Month click the link here.

July

5-in-1 Cocktail Tool

For the (usually) hot month of July, the featured hammer is one of our ice crushing mallets. Using hatchets, picks and mallets to break off and break up chunks of ice was common practice for centu…ries, especially when ice used to be delivered in great blocks to peoples homes. The Hammer Museum has several different varieties of these types of hammers.
Of our collection of ice crushing hammers this chrome mallet stands out. It is actually a 5-in-1 tool for the amateur bartender. The mallet crushes ice; the cup, called a “jigger,” measures liquids up to 1 1/2 oz; the end is a bottle opener that, when pulled out, becomes a corkscrew; and in the handle, there are nine cocktail recipes. This tool was manufactured around the mid 20th century in the heyday of the post-war “cocktail culture.”

August

Ship’s Caulking Mallet and Irons

Check out the video we made to go with this exhibit display.

September

Almond Tree Knocker

For more information see our original blog post.