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Sure. Sell ’em for a hundred.
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Sure. Sell 'em for a hundred.
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Were it me, I'd want a hammer with a depleted uranium head -- the same stuff Army anti-tank kinetic energy rounds use. This stuff is dense and very hard. Titanium, if you remember your chemistry classes, as well, is lighter by atomic weight than iron, so it allows a lighter steel alloy with the same or greater hardness of normal steel. But you are correct on the effective weight issue.
*I saw the same ad and thought the same thing but maybe not in such scientific terms. My question is has anyone used one?? How does it work? If you could reduce gravity I think the bucks would be in a weight loss clinic.
*titanium hammers. hmmm seems like an expensive blunt instrument.
*Yeah, but everytime you hit a nail, you're gonna excite the little electrons on the DU hammer head, the geiger counter is gonna start clicking, and a 50-pound box of 16d nails later your hair is going to be falling out.I've got some old video from out in Nevada when they were testing 30mm DU shells on the A-10. Each DU projectile weighs about a pound. What they do to hardened armor is amazing. The big concern was radioactivity around the target after the tanks were taken out. The solution?They loaded the tanks with various farmyard animals and had at it. The engineers wearing "space suits" were sent in afterwards with the geiger counters, shovels and plastic bags to clean up. They checked out everything, supposedly it was almost a-okay. I don't recall seeing any PETA representatives in the film. HHmmmm.Late at night and I'm getting nostalgic. Here's the business end of the Hog with the crew chief holding one of the 30mmshells.Here's a flame that even Joe Fusco can't match.
*Ah, a Warthog guy. Figures. :)
*As far as powder actuated tools go that thing looks better than my Hilti.
*Just more proof that there is a high resistance to change in the construction industry. If there is a better hammer made will it be accepted? Not a chance with the bunch of whiners and know-it-alls that are using this forum to gloat about their outdated methods (do it the old way), and voice self serving jibes at fellow humans such as this posting!I have and use the Ti hammer. It is a good tool for what I need, better than any I have tried. Its biggest benefit to me is the lighter weight, which relieves a little my already overweight (due to a cordless drill and holster and 12" nail bag with nails) that I need for the type of construction that I do. Still drives a 16d in 2 and will drive an 11" maze nail with power the 2"+ into the nailbase. Never use the nail holder feature but it is there.This tool is not a joke as far as I am concerned but you guys will never know because you are too caught up in the past to see the future. You should see some of the other tools I have to use on a daily basis that are one offs that I have scrounged to make my job easier. You would only laugh. By the way I got mine direct from stilletto.com it was $10 bucks cheaper than from the catalog I saw it in.
*My original point had little to do with the desirability of titanium hammers and a lot to do with people who write advertising copy that is patently contrary to the law of gravity. Weight is produced by gravity working on a mass. You can't change the mass and not the weight and vice versa. Obvious ignorance of the use of tools is grounds for ridicule on a job site. Words are a writer's tools, and in this case they were used in an obviously ignorant way. I have discovered that the weight and mass of the hammer I prefer is inversely proportional to my age. If it weren't for nail guns, I probably wouldn't be in this business any more. I would love to try a titanium hammer, but rather than spend $80 I will wait 'til I can try somebody else's investment first. I have never been on a job where a new tool was treated with anything but fascination; everybody wanting to try it. Ironically as a right handed person, I have experienced tendonitis in my left arm. Although the pain is in the elbow, hence the nicknames, the inflamation comes from the use of the wrist.
*Mike,Very well put, but it's obvious from the posting before yours (6.0) that the advertising is effective. At least one user is willing to believe that a lighter hammer is the same as a heavier one.
*Before I jump in, I want some details. Does the 12oz hammer distribute the weight differently, in a way that delivers the same amount of force upon impact with the same amountof effort?I can drive a mail in two with a small hammer, but it is dueto technique, not weight. Im always looking to lighten the belt, so this interests me enough to try it out. I've thrown away plenty more than 80$ on useless tools: come and peek into my barn!Blue
*Borrowing from research conducted by Ely Callaway in developing the Big Bertha golf club, Mark Martinez of Stiletto Tools has invented the Titan, a 12 ounce titanium alloy hammer. Similar to the Big Bertha, the Titan has a graphite/boron shaft, hosel-less through the head shaft attachment, and a bigger sweetspot than other hammers, ensuring fewer mis-hits. Carpenters are guaranteed to take strokes off their framing projects. The head is made by Ruger Investment Casting, a subsidiary of Sturm, Ruger & Company, so each Titan hammer will also include recoil ejection as a standard feature. Additionally, the Titan features a magnetic nail holder above the face that allows master carpenters to dramatically increase their incomes in a T&M situation. Interested parties may learn more at .
*I couldn't find any claims in that web site about the mass of the hammer being the same as a 21oz hammer. They have smarter copy writers than for the ad I saw.
*Mike, sorry to offend but I was not referencing your posting but my smartass remarks. I blew right by the mass theory myself as an adman's wd and was attracted to the tool for its lower weight. Come by the job and try it out for yourself! But the $80 or whatever is cheap for anything Ti, I have a friend that builds Ti bicycles and gets $3000 for about 4 lbs. of tubes with some welding. $250 for a stem which kind of resembles a hammer? I have seen Russians Ti shovels also.When it comes right down to it a person that knows what they are doing could build with the cheapest possible tools (witness the pyramids) and vice-versa.
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I have one of the Titan hammers and it is a fine, well made tool. It usually takes one more hit with the Titan to sink a 16d than it does with my 20 oz. Hart or my 25 oz. Estwing but the Titan is lighter in the toolbelt and performance may improve with practice. I think the slight difference in performance despite the large difference in weight may be due to being able to get the Titan moving faster durring the swing, force being a product of weight and speed.
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I can't be offended. The skin is too thick.
*How about less wind resistance? Make a smaller hammer with more weight. Aerodynamic. Get that sucker moving realfast. You just got to be more accurate with your swing to hit the nail.
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Mike -
RE: The Titan
Being Physics-Challenged, I wondered if the conservation of momentum fits in here somewhere.
MV = M'V' or something like that.
To deliver the same amount of whack to the nail, wouldn't a 12 oz hammer need to being going twice as fast as a 24 oz. hammer?
I am hoping to find someone with a Titan because I want to swat a few nails with it.
T (as in tendonitis) ToolBear
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F=Ma
It reminds me of the old grade school joke:
Which weighs more, a pound of lead or a pound of feathers?
*And much more fun to use, too!
*Panelmal: Now how can you say we're old fashioned? OK, I still use a granite hammer head, secured in the tradional split stick as my Neanderthal predecessors did... but I have switched to Kevlar cord to bind it!More to the point, I haven't really noticed much difference with the Granite vs. the Gneiss Heads I'd been using. The Hachet style handle did lessen the Tendonitis though... better wrist position.
*panelmal,I'm trying to picture a Russian titanium shovel, and the only image I get is of it having a cast iron handle.
*How about a pound of gold or a pound of feathers. Think about that for a while. It's not as obvious as it seems.
*ha ha ha ha ah ha ahaha aha aha aha ha ha!!!
*The shovel looked like any other with a wooden shaft. Russian birch I believe! Actually Russia has the ability to produce Ti at a much cheaper price than we can here. Raleigh bicycle company of Seattle, WA. had a deal going with them about 7 years ago. Unfortunately the quality of the Ti left much to be desired as you might assume so not much came of the deal. One of the producers of Ti here in the states is a Sandvik corporation by the way.If I ever see the shovel again, I believe it is in CA now, I will snag a picture of it to show all.
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So typical of much of what i read here .; everybody knows everything blah blah blah . I have a titanium hammer and believe me after swinging for 25 years with every thing from estwings to hart to jersey rockets the titan is the best thing since sliced bread.It lightens my belt load and eases the strain on my arm and, it takes another swing to set a 16d but if i were that much in a hurry i'd be using a nail gun.The difference in wieght is something you have to feel to believe. When i called about ordering i just happened to catch the owner in (Martinez) real nice fellow and knew what he was talking about. Think of all the things you spend $80. on and then think about how much you use your hammer. Try before you criticize
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There's not much criticism of the hammer...it was more the original "physic-ally" challenged ad copy that Mike pointed out.
Glad to hear the tool works for you.
*A pound of lead! If you don't believe me, let me drop a pund of lead on your head from the top of the roof. Then let me drop a pound of feathers. Whichever hurts more is heavier!Blue
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Mongo,
Lead, of course. It's heavier. :-)
(And since this is New Math, my answer is as good as anyone's and my Self Esteem is enhanced. After all, is there any reason 2+2 should = 4?)
ToolBear - The Bruin that counts on his claws.
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Right on Mongo. I believe the original post claimed that it would drive it just as easy, sinking a spike with two blows. Now, we are hearing from users that it takes an extra blow, which is what I would figure. A lighter weight simply is not going to have enough inertia to drive them baby's home unless you increase speed.
So, that mean' that it is all technique. Now I see that the head is bigger with a sweet spot that makes it better for Aunt Bertha! Well whoopdee do! I prefer smaller heads.
Any ways, I like the idea of less weight, but don't want a bigger head. I will however hunt one down and try it. If it sucks, I'll simply return it. They do have a thirty day saatisfaction guarantee eh?
Blue
*Hammers, well let's see I personally own about Ten hammers......... why you ask? Well I used to us Blue Grass Brand and then they were bought out and there new stuff don't feel right. When we went on the search for the Holy Grail in hammers.After trying out about a hunderd differant types I have now settled on a stanley 20 oz straght claw that has tape on the handle (have big hands and can't get a grip) Hammers are a personal things with carps and each to there own I say......besides my perfered way of driving nail today is my pulling the trigger. Don't think my arm would stand up to driving 100 lbs of nails anymore
*I'm with you on that one Bill!When I go to the spike box now, I grab THREE nails!I could use a 12oz finishing hammer if it had straight claws!Hell, I could use a brick!Blue
*My favorite hammer is a homemade job. I build this thing to use on fencing(barbed wire) welded a 1 1/2 steel pipe to a cheap hammer head. Loved that thing. I'm to scared to bring it on a job site.
*Mongo nice picture.... I think I see my local inspector in the bombadier seat-- what I needed a permit???!!!
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I thought the stuff was soft. It was the kinetic energy provided by the mass (1/2*m(v**2))combined with a hardened shell (harder than tank armor) that allowed penetration. Any weaps engineers? We used the same on CIWS (Close-In Weapon System, what the USS Stark did not have active before being hit). A 30mm 4500rpm gattling gun hooked to a closed loop high freq radar. Sounded like someone doing a bad imitation of a fart. Sorry, no pix. We also handled shells by hand as in Mongo's pic. Not required to isolate ammo containers during or after use except in the magazine.
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You know the difference between Mechanical and Civil Engineers?
Mechanical Engineers build weapons. Civil Engineerers build targets.
David Thomas, PE, Civil
*I think that the Russians have all the Titanium. Many years ago I used some Russian titanium SCUBA tanks. They had about the same capacity as the US Divers aluminum tanks but 3 of them would fit in a brief case with enough room left over for a candy bar and a sandwich. 8000psi!!!!!!The driving force of a hammer is based on the mass of the head and its speed at impact. A lighter handle will reduce the tools weight and shock to the hand and wrist without reducing the mass of the head. A lighter head could be accelerated to a higher speed giving about the same force as a heavier head (slightly less because a little more energy will go back into the lighter head from the recoil)
*My favorite hammer is a homemade one too. Its a head from a 20oz. straight claw hammer that I put on a ash hatchet handle. I thined the top half or so of the handle to save some weight and shock but left the butt end large for the grip. Its about 6" longer than the origional handle. Looks kino of like the new Hart.
*ron,I'm a diver...where does one get a 8000psi Russian scuba tank or two? And then I guess I would need a Russian air compresser to fill at 8000psi!!!Near the stream,J
*New Hart?I have had two for over ten years...Near the stream,J
*I could only get them filled up at the university that procured them. 4500 psi is about as high as you can usually find. Every few years I hear rumors about someone bringing them into the States and getting them DOT'ed. If you are really interested start looking in France.By the way I have used my air tools fon a scuba regulator for punch work. (before I got a Paslode)
*I must be showing my age Jack. Ten years is still new to me.
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I saw an ad for a titanium hammer at $80 bucks. It claimed that a 12 oz hammer was as good as a 21 oz framing hammer because it "had the same mass but less weight." According to my knowledge of physics the only way the same mass could have less weight is if there were less gravity. My question: If you could reduce gravity wouldn't there be better ways to get rich than selling $80 hammers?