TUNING HAMMERS/LEVERS

[Ron Nossaman]

>Thanks to all who helped me with this matter.  Sounds like hammers are a 
>fairly subjective tool, and I'm going to try several different ones out 
>and go from there.
>David

Or you could just make your own. For a long time, I used an old Hale 
extension hammer, and liked it just fine except that the way I held it was 
getting awfully hard on the hand and finger joints after 20 years or so. 
One day, out in the shop and looking for something constructive to do 
instead of cleaning up, I decided to try something different. A length of 
7/16" stainless steel rod from the scarp bin, a 2.25" diameter gray ball 
from a fifty cent garage sale track ball (bought some months before for 
just this purpose), and about a half hour of time cutting the rod to 
length, threading the ends, JB Welding the ball on one end, and installing 
a Schaff all in one tip/head (previously purchased for this purpose) on the 
other. An old pool ball at 2.25" would work fine, but might tend to 
diminish that exalted air of professionalism we work so hard to fake. This 
is now far and away my favorite hammer. It's light, feels as rigid as the 
Hale in use, and spreads the joint abuse out over a broad enough area that 
my hand no longer hurts - at least from tuning. It's very comfortable, very 
controllable, and not nearly as ugly as an impact hammer.

The ball initially felt a bit big to me, and I wished I had an old snooker 
ball at 2.125" to try, but I got used to the 2.25 pretty quickly and like 
it fine now, though I still miss snooker.

Ron N