No, Ron, I came along a
little later than the whale oil days.
I remember very well a work table as much as you describe. Ours was 6' x 16', double ply top. We always built our flats with the covering staples on the
face, first toward the center of the
flat, then glue the flap, then staple along the outside
edge &
trim. (We used to use
hide glue (it was an outdoor
theatre) but the rain always caused problems with the glue and the
stage paint. About 1955 we switched to
casein glue and paint--thot we'd died & gone to heaven.) Always fastened the covering on the
face of the
flat and had the paint crew
dutchman any joints. Covering wrapping the frames and fastened on the back gets cut & damaged handling the flat--more work for the next guy.
Clinch nails &
5# sledges?? Didn't you guys eat your oatmeal? I never had any problem using my 1# Estwing. Two swats and a good one to clinch.
DEFINITELY TLDR
AGAIN!
@JonCarter Personally, I was never a fan of the Estwings, something about the angle of their striking
face in relation to the longitudinal axis of their handles. I always liked their appearance, balance and quality but they never matched the hammer I began my apprenticeship with. With the first hammer I purchased, I could pound nails all day exactly as you describe. Anytime / every time someone would
hand me their Estwing to drive one
nail, I'd consistently knock it over / away from me. It was totally due to having spent years with my first hammer and my arm's "muscle memories" found it nigh on impossible to use any of the Estwings for any useful purpose. My marteau (Spelling) of choice was a 20 ounce Stanley F1 straight claw framing hammer which I purchased to pound my 5/8" square x 18" long Sears Craftsman cold chisel that I bought as part of my initial collection of pro' grade tools when I commenced the first year of my construction and maintenance electrical apprenticeship. Whenever the cold chisel's head began to '
mushroom', I'd give it a few rotations against a bench grinder. Periodically I'd utilize the same grinder to reshape and sharpen the cutting end. Every few years, it'd be getting a
bit shorter and, being a Craftsman tool, my local Sears store would replace it with a new one. Not that it was broken as such but I'd show a clerk my chisel next to a new one with the identically stamped matching part numbers facing she or he and they'd agree I'd clearly put a lot of miles on it and cheerfully give me my gratis exchange. To this day, I still own one of those chisels and my original Stanley F1 hammer.
To get back to the short-handled 5 pound sledges; many / most of the amateurs didn't
swing a hammer for a living and couldn't drive a
nail home by coffee break. Thus a pair of short-handled five pounders were kept on
hand for the lady teachers and folks who flew desks all day to
play and entertain themselves with.
Guys on job sites where always ragging me for my
foot and a half / 18" long cold chisels with cat calls such as "Don't like to get too close to your work sonny?" If you're carefully cutting a missed box into a finished concrete
block supporting wall or adding extra receptacles and / or switches being included as after the fact extra cost additions to a project which were added after the signing of the contract AND the wall is constructed from 12" blocks, the additional length often comes in handy. If you're several stories up above finished grade, working from inside and needing to get at least a guide hole on the exterior, it's REALLY nice to have something left to grab as your chisel suddenly breaks through and attempts to sail off into the sunset and / or land on someone or something outside. He who laughs last is the kid with the long chisel when some journeyman loses his 8, 10 or 12 incher into the innards of a finished
block wall. Secondarily, if you're constructing a building from the foundations up on a site in a sea of mud with your car parked a half mile away and you're carrying ALL of the tools you need to get through your day with you, you elect to carry one chisel rather than a selection of three or four. If I was only going to tote one all day, I wanted my most versatile and my Craftsman 5/8" square by 18" long was my chisel of choice and NEVER let me down over the course of my five year apprenticeship and my time in doing lighting and sound in a soft=seater
road house. I can't recall ever needing my chisel once I switched allegiances, to became the IA head of sound in the Stratford Festival's main
stage and rented an apartment in Stratford. No, I'm pretty sure the chisel remained home in Hamilton and moved directly to Burlington from there. I still own it. Know where it is at the moment. It's still never let me down and I STILL type posts that are TOO LONG and rambling. I also bought a Craftsman two pound ball-peen back when I originally purchased my first long cold chisel but I've rarely needed to drag it out as the 20 ounce Stanley F1 perpetually served the great bulk of my needs.
Toodleoo!
Ron Hebbard.
