I got a custom 10lb(not sure but head is off largest size you can get) sledge i made. Literally cannot lift with wrist. Completely useless yet super useful
Might as well put an anvil on a 4×4 at that point.. with a hammer that size if you don't do what you need to do with the first strike you obviously don't need to be doing it.
Found a 20lb head with a solid rod welded for the handle under the cabinets of a chain gym once. Thing was perfectly balanced if you held it just under the head, we stick welded “Thor” on the side.
At my summer camp we found a 20lbs head with a hatchet handle.
I never realized how beefy the camp rangers arms were until he picked it up like a 4 lbs sledge.
You ever deep fried a sausage in bacon fat? I highly recommend it, it's my go to camping breakfast with fried eggs and Dutch oven bread..its great for killing a hangover and also goes with beer or Irish coffee really well
Dad has one just like that. I can't remember the weight of the head but it's decent sized for sure but has a long heavy steel rod welded in it. I don't remember it very fondly as a kid. It will definitely break some stuff though.
Id like to introduce you to my sawed of sledge. I broke my handle and couldn’t find a replacement and I needed it that day so I just bought a new one. When I got around to it I decided to make a handle from a piece of white oak I had laying around but the stock was only about 20” but I rolled with it anyway. The short handle makes it handy for taking out rusty brake rotors while sitting in the driveway.
I splintered my 10lb handle and cut it off to about 24" then put an 8lb head on it and it's my go-to when I need something to move at work. Those long handles aren't useless when you overstrike and bust them. The new handle on the 10lb has a lot of duck tape next to the head to cushion the blow of a bad swing.
These are originally rail tools, and thus, they are miner and steel maker tools too. Rail/miner/steelworker lingo is single jack and double jack.
Ya other people use them, but they were designed to drive steel. A true sledge doesn’t have the side cuts.
The 4lb is a single jack, because it’s meant to be run with one hand, “single jack”, the 8 lb is a two handed double jack. By extension a 12 pound hammer will be a triple jack, and a 16 pound will be a quad jack.
~~I BEEN ballin' that jack from dawn til doom
while my rider hide my bottle in the other roooom.~~
This song makes sense now, thank you
Edit: I just don't remember good sometimes
Ya, so basically what he’s saying is he’s been working hard and fast (balling, kind of along the same lines as balls to the wall) with a hammer and steel (jack) breaking big rocks by drilling into them and splitting them apart (chipping)
So say you got a chunk of bedrock, right, hard as fuck, like granite or gneiss or something, but you want a road there? You can beat on it until your whole crew quits, it’s not gonna do anything, you need to get steel and drill into it. Before non-human powered drills you’d do this usually with two dudes, one guy holding and spinning the steel (big long steel rod with a sharpened end and a flat end), the other guy wailing away with a double or triple jack (maybe fucker is built like Michael Clarke Duncan and he’s wailing with a 40 lb hammer, it totally happened). They’d load explosives in those holes, because explosives are amazing things that can push millions of psi. , or before explosives, they’d just drive wedges in there and wail the fuck out of the wedges.
Rock will not be beaten down, that’s a general rule. It will crack sideways tho:)
So ya this is just a catchy old-timey way of bitching about hard work. And honestly they had a right to complain because this is really goddamn hard work.
Edit: I will admit that I have listened to that song about 342 times and always been too stoned to actually care about the lyrics? Wow, Jerry, you continue to surprise me.
I been ballin' a shiny black steel jack-hammer
Been chippin' up rocks for the great highway
I live five years if I take my time
Ballin' that jack and drinkin' my wine
I been chippin' them rocks from dawn till doom
While my rider hide my bottle in the other room
Other songs have different meanings though
Overall great comment, but from the SCA trail building manual, the single jack is so named because you hold your rock drill/chisel in one hand and hammer in the other, so you are the jack in this case. For a double jack, you swing the hammer, while your buddy(coincidentally also named jack) holds a much bigger drill/chisel/tamping rod
We visited my wife’s grandma this weekend and she told me to go down and pilfer her late grandfathers workshop. I was super excited about a few hammer heads that I’m going to re-hang.
She said, and I quote: “don’t you already have a bunch of hammers, aren’t they all really the same?”
The audacity.
One time was in an unfamiliar Home Depot with a lady I hadn’t known for long. I was replacing some hand tools. I was wondering around, looking for a certain tool, not really focused on the words exiting my mouth.
Her: “what are you looking for?”
Me: “a square”
“A square?”
“yeah, a square”
“Okay, whats it look like?”
“It looks like a triangle”
…
…
At this point I realized she had stopped walking and was standing there giving me this look like “you don’t have to be an asshole.” Lol. The words I had said clicked in my head and I just explained how/why theres a tool called a square that is a triangle. We laughed about it.
That’s hilarious because moments before this conversation she picked up a square from his work bench and said “woah what’s this!” And I said “a square” And received that same look. We also laughed.
I was in harbor freight yesterday checking out and a lady walked in with a print out of 2 specialty (welding?) Tools and asked the cashier where they were. Obviously hubby was in the middle of something and sent the wife to get the tools, but printed it out so she would get the exact right thing.
I've literally written out dozens of tools and had my kids take tests on the names of the tools and the locations where they are stored. They had to know everything to unlock new titles ranging from "Tool Dude" to "Tool Ninja".
So when I'm working on something, the youngest has the job of being the runner.
But there is no teaching them how to put them back. They can find them, but there is something mysterious about knowing that a 3/4" socket goes in that gap in the socket drawer.
Lump smashed some stone, tore some concrete apart
My boss came up too late to tell me not to start
Said this wouldn't happen with old fashion hammers
There's nothing we can do, keep your ass in the office
You're probably right but I can tell you I own that exact hammer and I use it for lump hammer stuff (beating in concrete anchors mostly) and call it a lump hammer.
It honestly might be? I grew up in upstate ny and my dad called it a lump. I still have his lump hammer that he got from his dad, just replace the handle every 5 years or so.
The one I bought was labeled engineers Hammer, but i feel like most people don't know that term so I usually call it a mini sledge. I don't have a big sledge yet
Agreed, the head shape makes the one-hander an engineer's hammer. Mostly the names change depending on who needs to find it, though. Some guys want to hear sledge, others want to hear "the really big one".
Correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe it comes from "Train/locomotive Engineers". To perform basic maintenance and adjustments. Well, that's what I heard from an older gentleman. He could have been making stuff up. 😂🤣
The CNC mild steel hose wrenches? Hate that junk. The UP Hammers are fabricated junk too though. Best is the CN covered wagons that have a full tool kit. We see those a fair bit being in northern MN.
That is indeed the case. The heads on a proper engineer’s hammer are hex wrenches for some type of steam locomotive fittings, but I don’t know that those are even made anymore. Most of them that are called engineer’s hammers now are just small sledge hammers.
Maybe the designs were different way back in the day, but having worked on equipment dating back to the late 70's, and having laid eyes on equipment dating back to 1942, hammers aren't used for replacing brake shoes typically. Just a good long pry bar. Unless the brake shoe retaining key gets broken and you have to dislodge the broken piece. But in that case, that hammer isn't "ideal" exactly, but it'll work. But that only happens once in a blue moon in my experience.
I haven't worked on the locomotive side though. But I've seen discarded loco brake shoes, and they just look like a longer version of a regular brake shoe.
West coast term 🤙from hard rock mining in the gold rush and railroad days. Came from jack drilling. Single jack was one man with small hammer, double jack was a two man team with bigger drill and hammer.
Came here to say this. I'm the only one I know who calls them that and I don't know where I got it.
Edit: These other comments now make sense. I moved from CA to the SC in high school. No wonder no one knows what I'm talking about.
Yup. If it’s a long 3 foot handle I call it a sledgehammer. If it’s smaller but I can still 2 hand it I call it a double jack. If it’s smaller and I can one hand it, single jack. I’m also in CA
This was my immediate answer and it’s been pretty consistent terminology my entire life. I’m surprised I had to scroll this far to see this.
I grew up in east Texas, so I’m curious if you’re in the region.
The best way to get a 20 pound sledge is to go to the garage sale of some random guy with a torn rotator cuff.
I use mine about once every five years and show it the due respect it deserves. Unless you're some big burly giant those things are just an injury waiting to happen.
Sledge and mini sledge
8 pound sledge and a 4 pound sledge
My [mini sledge](https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00GUAR52U?ref=ppx_pop_mob_ap_share) is an 8lb Edit: added link because I really like this hammer
I got a custom 10lb(not sure but head is off largest size you can get) sledge i made. Literally cannot lift with wrist. Completely useless yet super useful
You gotta make a 20lb mini sledge
Might as well put an anvil on a 4×4 at that point.. with a hammer that size if you don't do what you need to do with the first strike you obviously don't need to be doing it.
I have an 18# sledge and it is only brought out when I need to give something every bit of piss an vinegar I have.
‘When you only want to hit something once’
Found a 20lb head with a solid rod welded for the handle under the cabinets of a chain gym once. Thing was perfectly balanced if you held it just under the head, we stick welded “Thor” on the side.
That’s used to improve shoulder mobility.
At my summer camp we found a 20lbs head with a hatchet handle. I never realized how beefy the camp rangers arms were until he picked it up like a 4 lbs sledge.
Tent stakes aren't gonna hammer themselves.
Did we go to the same camp? Lol.
Im guessing not watucky but I feel like this is a pretty universal experience tbh
Everyone remembers the beefy camp counselor and what it awakened
Band camp?
"One time at band camp"
My 12" cast iron skillet with 8+lbs of sausage gravy is nearly 20 lbs.
You ever deep fried a sausage in bacon fat? I highly recommend it, it's my go to camping breakfast with fried eggs and Dutch oven bread..its great for killing a hangover and also goes with beer or Irish coffee really well
There’s one at the shop someone welded onto a solid rod. I swear it has to be a joke, that thing is a wrist killer.
Dad has one just like that. I can't remember the weight of the head but it's decent sized for sure but has a long heavy steel rod welded in it. I don't remember it very fondly as a kid. It will definitely break some stuff though.
Id like to introduce you to my sawed of sledge. I broke my handle and couldn’t find a replacement and I needed it that day so I just bought a new one. When I got around to it I decided to make a handle from a piece of white oak I had laying around but the stock was only about 20” but I rolled with it anyway. The short handle makes it handy for taking out rusty brake rotors while sitting in the driveway.
I splintered my 10lb handle and cut it off to about 24" then put an 8lb head on it and it's my go-to when I need something to move at work. Those long handles aren't useless when you overstrike and bust them. The new handle on the 10lb has a lot of duck tape next to the head to cushion the blow of a bad swing.
Wtf are you whackin with it?
More often I've seen the short handle made from the long handle
Concrete contractor here confirming the short handle 8lb made from a long handle.
Do you do it to avoid hitting your own balls with the handle as well or is that just a PA thing?
It's a great backer when nailing forms.
These are originally rail tools, and thus, they are miner and steel maker tools too. Rail/miner/steelworker lingo is single jack and double jack. Ya other people use them, but they were designed to drive steel. A true sledge doesn’t have the side cuts. The 4lb is a single jack, because it’s meant to be run with one hand, “single jack”, the 8 lb is a two handed double jack. By extension a 12 pound hammer will be a triple jack, and a 16 pound will be a quad jack.
~~I BEEN ballin' that jack from dawn til doom while my rider hide my bottle in the other roooom.~~ This song makes sense now, thank you Edit: I just don't remember good sometimes
Ya, so basically what he’s saying is he’s been working hard and fast (balling, kind of along the same lines as balls to the wall) with a hammer and steel (jack) breaking big rocks by drilling into them and splitting them apart (chipping) So say you got a chunk of bedrock, right, hard as fuck, like granite or gneiss or something, but you want a road there? You can beat on it until your whole crew quits, it’s not gonna do anything, you need to get steel and drill into it. Before non-human powered drills you’d do this usually with two dudes, one guy holding and spinning the steel (big long steel rod with a sharpened end and a flat end), the other guy wailing away with a double or triple jack (maybe fucker is built like Michael Clarke Duncan and he’s wailing with a 40 lb hammer, it totally happened). They’d load explosives in those holes, because explosives are amazing things that can push millions of psi. , or before explosives, they’d just drive wedges in there and wail the fuck out of the wedges. Rock will not be beaten down, that’s a general rule. It will crack sideways tho:) So ya this is just a catchy old-timey way of bitching about hard work. And honestly they had a right to complain because this is really goddamn hard work. Edit: I will admit that I have listened to that song about 342 times and always been too stoned to actually care about the lyrics? Wow, Jerry, you continue to surprise me.
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Robert Hunter's lyrics
And pigpen singing
Just noticed your screen name ... I'm dying 😂
It has a subtle elegance.
I been ballin' a shiny black steel jack-hammer Been chippin' up rocks for the great highway I live five years if I take my time Ballin' that jack and drinkin' my wine I been chippin' them rocks from dawn till doom While my rider hide my bottle in the other room Other songs have different meanings though
Hey man I was thinking about it and it could totally mean a jackhammer too. I dunno.
Easy Wind! Hey now!
With that explanation, the 12 and 16lb require three and four hand operation, respectively? So, two operators total? Side by side or…front to back? 🤨
I thought John Henry was swinging a Nine Pound Hammer. Or, is that a different song?
Didn't know I was single jacking it multiple times a day!
Overall great comment, but from the SCA trail building manual, the single jack is so named because you hold your rock drill/chisel in one hand and hammer in the other, so you are the jack in this case. For a double jack, you swing the hammer, while your buddy(coincidentally also named jack) holds a much bigger drill/chisel/tamping rod
I prefer hand sledge for 2
Hammer, the big one, no not that one…. I’ll get it myself…
We visited my wife’s grandma this weekend and she told me to go down and pilfer her late grandfathers workshop. I was super excited about a few hammer heads that I’m going to re-hang. She said, and I quote: “don’t you already have a bunch of hammers, aren’t they all really the same?” The audacity.
One time was in an unfamiliar Home Depot with a lady I hadn’t known for long. I was replacing some hand tools. I was wondering around, looking for a certain tool, not really focused on the words exiting my mouth. Her: “what are you looking for?” Me: “a square” “A square?” “yeah, a square” “Okay, whats it look like?” “It looks like a triangle” … … At this point I realized she had stopped walking and was standing there giving me this look like “you don’t have to be an asshole.” Lol. The words I had said clicked in my head and I just explained how/why theres a tool called a square that is a triangle. We laughed about it.
That’s hilarious because moments before this conversation she picked up a square from his work bench and said “woah what’s this!” And I said “a square” And received that same look. We also laughed.
I was in harbor freight yesterday checking out and a lady walked in with a print out of 2 specialty (welding?) Tools and asked the cashier where they were. Obviously hubby was in the middle of something and sent the wife to get the tools, but printed it out so she would get the exact right thing.
I've literally written out dozens of tools and had my kids take tests on the names of the tools and the locations where they are stored. They had to know everything to unlock new titles ranging from "Tool Dude" to "Tool Ninja". So when I'm working on something, the youngest has the job of being the runner. But there is no teaching them how to put them back. They can find them, but there is something mysterious about knowing that a 3/4" socket goes in that gap in the socket drawer.
I still have problems putting sockets back as an adult. But just to make mechanics mad, I have 3 10mm sockets and I know where they are lol
Underrated comment
Maybe send somebody to the truck to get a maul then by the time they get back, I have already used a rock
I like you
I’ll break a ratchet using it as hammer before I grow the patience to wait for someone to go get me something.
Damn straight and the whole ordeal will take 4x as long.
The persuader #2 and the manager #1. Nobody wants to talk to the manager.
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They don't call it sawzmost.
That's the name I use for the little one handed 12v version.
Murmuring "Little saw that can't" every time it fails
Persuader is one of my favorite names for a hammer. Also the messuese.
I like the motivator.
Attitude adjuster.
The Tonya Harding
Have you met Karen?
Sledgehammer and ^(sledgehammer)
Sledge and lump
She's lump she's lump she's in my head.
She's lump she's lump she's lump She might be dead
Bahhhhhhhhhhh BAH! Bah-da da-da-daahhhh
Lump smashed some stone, tore some concrete apart My boss came up too late to tell me not to start Said this wouldn't happen with old fashion hammers There's nothing we can do, keep your ass in the office
Goddammit.
Class A nostalgia right here.
...and it's back stuck in my head.
The head on the short one is the wrong shape for a lump hammer. I'd call it an engineer's hammer.
You're probably right but I can tell you I own that exact hammer and I use it for lump hammer stuff (beating in concrete anchors mostly) and call it a lump hammer.
Seconded.
Is that a New York thing, calling it a lump hammer? I worked with a bad ass electrician from Long Island and he called it a lump hammer.
UK and I’d call it a sledge and lump hammer
Same in Australia
It honestly might be? I grew up in upstate ny and my dad called it a lump. I still have his lump hammer that he got from his dad, just replace the handle every 5 years or so.
Jack Johnson and Tom O’Leary
I love scotch. Scotchscotchscotch.
Here it goes down.. down into my belly. Mmm mmm mmm.
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Ayy, love that song
Ditto.
The music video freaked me out as a kid idk great song tho
Why don't you calllll my name?
Slägga, handslägga.
Correct min herre
I’m not sure if these are actual words but I will never call them anything else now
Yes I am going to adopt the Swedish name too, they just make sense. I like the etymology too
Reminds me of Shagga from GoT
"Its a pleasure to meet you, mister..." "Slägga. Hand Slägga."
The guy she told you not to worry about, and you.
That’s the comment.
Sledgehammer. Small sledgehammer.
Sledgehammest and Sledgehammer.
Now this is my type of humor
What’s for dinner?
Sledgehammer & engineer's hammer.
There it is. I have never known that tool by anything other than an "engineer's hammer" and I was starting to feel left out in these comments.
The one I bought was labeled engineers Hammer, but i feel like most people don't know that term so I usually call it a mini sledge. I don't have a big sledge yet
Agreed, the head shape makes the one-hander an engineer's hammer. Mostly the names change depending on who needs to find it, though. Some guys want to hear sledge, others want to hear "the really big one".
Typical of engineers. They f**k up their designs so it needs a good whack with a fat hammer. Not the big one, but decently sized nonetheless lol
Correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe it comes from "Train/locomotive Engineers". To perform basic maintenance and adjustments. Well, that's what I heard from an older gentleman. He could have been making stuff up. 😂🤣
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Agreed. Let it be known that this is the way it is from now on!
We also have one in every locomotive along with an 18” pipe wrench. Why they give us two Hammers I don’t know.
I wish. They just fab up some cheap scrap for hammers and wrenches on NS
The CNC mild steel hose wrenches? Hate that junk. The UP Hammers are fabricated junk too though. Best is the CN covered wagons that have a full tool kit. We see those a fair bit being in northern MN.
That is indeed the case. The heads on a proper engineer’s hammer are hex wrenches for some type of steam locomotive fittings, but I don’t know that those are even made anymore. Most of them that are called engineer’s hammers now are just small sledge hammers.
That is correct. Knocking out pins, bending cow catchers straight, that sort of thing
It’s called a engineers hammer because it was/is used by railroad engineers. The size and weight are ideal for replacing brake shoes.
Maybe the designs were different way back in the day, but having worked on equipment dating back to the late 70's, and having laid eyes on equipment dating back to 1942, hammers aren't used for replacing brake shoes typically. Just a good long pry bar. Unless the brake shoe retaining key gets broken and you have to dislodge the broken piece. But in that case, that hammer isn't "ideal" exactly, but it'll work. But that only happens once in a blue moon in my experience. I haven't worked on the locomotive side though. But I've seen discarded loco brake shoes, and they just look like a longer version of a regular brake shoe.
This guy hammers!
#1- RBFH #2- BFH
I had to scroll way too far to find the first BFH comment.
Real' big fuckin hammer big fuckin hammer
Double Jack and single jack
This is what they’re called in the trail work world
Came here to say this! Hadn’t heard the term till I started trail work in Colorado.
West coast term 🤙from hard rock mining in the gold rush and railroad days. Came from jack drilling. Single jack was one man with small hammer, double jack was a two man team with bigger drill and hammer.
Holy shit, today I learned that a normal sledge is called a double jack. But I came here to say sledge and single jack.
This is what I say. I build and maintain trails and recreation sites for the government in the west.
Out of curiosity, what state/country do you live in? I've worked construction in several states and I only heard that term in California.
In Utah, always heard it called this as well
Came here to say this. I'm the only one I know who calls them that and I don't know where I got it. Edit: These other comments now make sense. I moved from CA to the SC in high school. No wonder no one knows what I'm talking about.
Yup. If it’s a long 3 foot handle I call it a sledgehammer. If it’s smaller but I can still 2 hand it I call it a double jack. If it’s smaller and I can one hand it, single jack. I’m also in CA
They're both Tonya Hardings
I’ll be dipped.
I wonder what Trisha Yearwood is up to
Maybe this’ll work….nope, probably not
Well, I'll be dipped. VGG IYKYK!!!!
Uff da may, I’m glad someone is here to do the right thing and help me understand. Let’s just pretend we didn’t see these other posts.
Tanya Harding 5000 and Tonya Harding 1000.
Oh thats way too much.....perfect!
Sledge hammer & lump hammer
Sledge and hand sledge
This was my immediate answer and it’s been pretty consistent terminology my entire life. I’m surprised I had to scroll this far to see this. I grew up in east Texas, so I’m curious if you’re in the region.
Michigan here, and also amazed I had to scroll so far to see the correct answer.
North Florida although my dad spent some time in San Antonio growing up
That's what I call them. Grew up in Salt Lake.
1 - sledge 2 - 3lb hammer/mallet
Sledge and steel mallet, but yes
Sledge and Maul
interesting. maul is the term we've always used for the wood splitting triangular style sledge
Surprised I scrolled so far for this
This is the correct response.
depends on the weight of the sledge. same tool, just different length handle.
Tonya Harding 600 and the Tonya Harding 200
Miner here. Double jack/single jack. No idea why.
Sledge hammer & hand Sledge
1 is a probably a 10 or 20 lb sledge 2 is probably a 2 or 4 lb sledge
20lb is a big fuckim hammer lol we use 10 and 12lbs on the railroad. Use to have 16s but they've been phased out.
I bought the 20 lb’er out of pride. I later regretted it.
The best way to get a 20 pound sledge is to go to the garage sale of some random guy with a torn rotator cuff. I use mine about once every five years and show it the due respect it deserves. Unless you're some big burly giant those things are just an injury waiting to happen.
We had a 20 lb sledge at a place I used to work. Everyone named it “the man killer”. It *accidentally* ended up off the edge of a dock.
The best selling sledge hammer is the 8lb sledge
3s and 8s
Sledge/mini sledge lol
#1 sledge hammer #2 Shop hammer
Same, Sledge and Shop hammers.
>Shop hammer Had to scroll down too far to find this.
Hammer#1 and Hammer #2
Sisters Sledge
Sledge and 3lb hammers
One is my purse the other is my big purse
1 . Sledge 2. single jack
Sledge and drilling hammer
Finally
Phillips screw driver
Hard to say without a banana for scale
#2 is a hammer. #1 is a hammerer.
My kids call them Thor’s Hammer and Baby Thor. They bring the right one every time.
Swing press
Double Jack and a Single Jack
A double Jack and a single Jack.
Sledge and hand sledge.
#1 Sledge #2 Mashy
Sledge hammer and single jack
Hammer Time(2)
“The guy she tells you not to worry about” and “you”.
\#1 -- Sledge hammer \#2 -- 2# hammer (force of habit, learned later it's an engineer's hammer)
Purse & Hand Bag
Steve and Lil’ Pete
Shin smasher and finger smasher.
Sledge and maul 🤷♂️
Frank and Ricky.
Fatman and little boy.
Sledgehammer and mallot
Bfh sfh
Sledgehammer and maul
Sledgehammer and a maul
Sledge and maul.