Help! Is it a hammer or a tuning fork?

are you sure it is not tinnitus?
estwing hammers have used, and never heard of such a problem.

-- Junior -Quality is never an accident-it is the reward for the effort involved.

Do you really drive nails with a hammer, been a while since I used one for that reason!! LOL Guess I’m spoiled with nail guns.

How much have you spent on hammers that you are unhappy with ???

-- If we learn from our mistakes, I'm getting a fantastic education.

Junior, I have tried 2 Estwing hammers. One was a 20 oz finisher and the other a 22 oz framing hammer. Both had the blue rubber anti-vibe handle grips. They both had a rip claw although I have tried some with rip claw and some with curved claw. I think that the 20 oz Estwing was the most annoying of all. It is a very high frequency pitch which of course makes it all the more annoying. I thought about tinnitus. Even had that checked. Maybe I am just hyper sensitive to high frequencies. That might explain my affection for dogs. I guess I should just put my earplugs in my ears.

I just find it odd that 2 old hammers, each with a pretty healthy patina, do not make this ringing noise. Maybe something about the age, lots of use and the patina have served to cancel some of these high frequency vibrations.

-- Hey, woodworking ain't brain surgery. Just do something and keep trying till you get it. Doc

Well, personally I like to use a nail gun but I do have two hammers that don’t seem to have any issues. They’re the yellow, fiberglass handled ones at Home depot for about $7.95. I’ve used them a lot and they seem to work well without noticeable vibration.

-- The smell of wood, coffee in the cup, the wife let's me do my thing, the lake is peaceful. http://gagnerwebsite.com/Deceiver/Craftsman_on_the_lake/Craftsman_on_the_lake.html

Use a Lie-Nielsen hand plane. I bet they don’t ring.

-- Backer boards, stop blocks, build oversized, and never buy a hand plane--

But getting them to stay on the handle is a bitch.

-- Michael Murphy, Woodland, CA.

Seriously consider the tinnitus possibility.

I have had tons of hammers. I have never noticed a ringing except when I find myself hammering near steel structure and occassionally miss.

I have owned at one time or other quite a few, enough to know a cheap hammer isn’t neccessarily a bad hammer nor is and expensive hammer a good hammer.

I now use a 17oz Douglas and find it to be the best hammer I’ve ever had. But there again I’ve never ran into this noise you speak of.

As to patina or age understand a hammer can fail after long use and should be replaced. People use hammers far longer than they should. Metal stresses and fatigues and small chips can fly off causing serious eye injury.

Be careful using an old hammer.

-- ~Just A Guy With A Hammer~

Jagwah, I will quote you when I buy a new leather gripped Estwing (if I can find one locally). Maggie will want to know why I need a new hammer when I have a perfectly good, much used 1978 Stanley 16 oz.
Bill

-- bill@magraphics.us

Can’t imagine that this would be an issue unless you used it for hours framing. Framed for 20 years mostly hand nailing and never really had any problems with the pinging that you speak of. There were other guys on the crew that would get a hammer like that from time to time. I always used a Crafstman 20 oz. wood handled framing hammer. If it got broken it went back if it wore out it went back. Replaced quite a few hammers in 20 years!

-- Fred.... Poconos, PA ---- Chairwright in the making ----

ear plugs and get some one else to do the nailing ?

-- "Good artists borrow, great artists steal”…..Picasso

when you hit a bell it goes bang, ding, dong…...

when you squeeze the trigger on a rifle…............bang

drop a book to the floor…............bang

hit a baseball witha baseball bat…...............bang
golfball….............bang

I think it has something to do with the laws of physics and I have yet to hear a hammer, be it a free junker or the 300 dollar titanium framing hammer, that when struck down upon a nail…....that it didnt make a, “ting, ding, dong, bang,” type sound.

maybe you have that tendenitous, or that ringing illness some folks get in their ear?

-- "Good artists borrow, great artists steal”…..Picasso

I never had anything like this on my hammers except for one where the handle
also was made of steal covered with rubber all the others are with wooden
ash handles
after you posted the question I did go down in my basement shop and tryid them
on a anwill all of them and no one of them had any ringing tone in them
even the cheepest craphammers among then (3 I got as gifts from some children but
hold on to them becourse they are gifts) don´t make any ringingnoise
but I will test for it next time I have to buy a hammer so thank´s for bringing
it up
this is one of the reesent I like with LumberJock you learn so many new thinks
that most peopple even have tought of before

Dennis

Could it be the nails? Have you tried that variable, using different ones to see if the ringing is centered there, rather than the hammers?

-- http://barbsid.blogspot.com/

The better hammers have a tuning fork to cancel out vibrations. Mosat of us who use hammers regularly can’t hear it ;-))

-- "some old things are lovely, warm still with life ... of the forgotten men who made them." - D.H. Lawrence Wake Up America!! Please read; http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/01/26-0