Yup! That's the feeling...of having a baseball bat hit your hand. I do in fact have a WonderWand. Charlie Heuther, bless his heart, gave me one when I first took the "Handle on Your Hammer" class on the road. I found it to be well- balanced and very aimable tool. (You need to aim it going from pin to pin, and with the orb always placing your hand at the same point along the "lever arm", the aim is much more predictable.) <<So I went out and bought a pair of racquetballs, cut a hole in one and popped it over the end of my hammer. ..... I may end up modifying my current hammer with a wood ball if I continue to like it>> A guy in my Kansas City '94 class had done just that, taking a gear-shift knob and boring a hole in it for his hammer handle. <<but that splash of blue on the end of the hammer is kind of flashy!>> If you had something in mind a little hairier, try a tennis ball. (Check it out in the "Danger:Road Construction Ahead" DaGlo Orange). As for the cup shape of your hand which curls around the orb, it allows your arm and hand to approach the handle from any direction, giving you the flexibility to find the most comfortable approach. I preach, forget string and tuning hammer inclinations, and find the way which best balances an efficient transfer of your force, with an outward aim of your force coming from a direction in which your muscles have the best support. (In other words, if it feels good, do it.) Yes, the ball shape is much friendlier to your hand. However, it's constant shape from any direction fails to warn me when a particular direction was losing lots of force because it was nowhere near normal. a little like asking a ball point pen to tell you which direction you're moving it in. So, I went back to my old "Graduation Day" (N.Bennet St., 2/72) hammer, the mother of nylon extension "pro". Speaking about friendly to the hand, I did find that the ball tended to spread the musculature of my hand outwards, the same way a lot of test blows make the fingers feel stretched apart and ready to split the hand. This is where the Racquet Ball belongs. If you think you know the feeling of a strong force being received by your hand in a location suitably strong to withstand it , try making a pounder out of one, instead of a lever handle. BTW, I now call it the Racket Ball (-a loud noise very well describes this tool) I have yet to reply to Ron Torrella's post of 12/20 with his version of a pounder. When I do you'll appreciate the fundamental differences in our mechanics. Like pianists and their desired feel and sound, we tooners settle into tuning with different physical preferences (or inclinations). And our stress shows up in different spots. Our Dirty Little Secret...it's all manual labor . Thanx for the Ideas Mr. Bill (oh, no....)
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