# Hammer storage, what do you use?



## bigblockyeti (Sep 9, 2013)

I have a variety of hammers for everything from rough framing to beating on a rusty car to scoring bricks. In stead of having them sprayed throughout vehicles, the house and the garage, it makes more sense to keep them all in one area and grab what I need when I need it. I have zero additional floor space and would like to build something to hang them on the wall but it has to be safe, so none can fall accidentally or otherwise. Below is a picture of most of what I have and how I'm thinking of laying them out on a board that could be lagged to the wall. Any ideas or pictures of what you've done would be greatly appreciated!


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## recycle1943 (Dec 16, 2013)

my hammers are piled in the bottom of a rolling tool box, lying on tables in the shed, hanging on the wall in the wood shop and wherever else I can trip on it


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## Dark_Lightning (Nov 20, 2009)

I have one claw hammer, one rubber hammer and one wooden mallet hanging on a peg board rack mounted to the door of one of my melamine cabinets. They are within easy reach for projects. The rest are in two drawers of a ten-drawer filing cabinet. The "pounders" are in the top drawer and all the nice hammers for copper smithing and other metal working are in the next drawer down. You have one more hammer than I do.


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## ssnvet (Jan 10, 2012)

I have most of my hammers in a drawer in my tool chest base.

I keep a bucket boss set up for carpentry work, so I can grab and go when I'm doing that. I have a framing and a finish hammer in that bucket.


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## bigblockyeti (Sep 9, 2013)

I sort of have a bucket boss, it's actually a fairly robust tool bag that came with one of my Milwaukee cordless sets a while ago and it can be pretty well organized for work on the go with all of the interior pockets but can turn into quite a mess pretty quick. I have most of them in various drawers most of which are in my roll around tool chest. My thought is a hammer board or a hammer till if you will so that all will project from the wall less than 3" and take up no additional floor space while all being immediately visible which I've found to be particularly helpful when in the middle of a time sensitive project or needing someone else to grab one quickly for me.


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## therealSteveN (Oct 29, 2016)

Empty 5 Gallon buckets. Your collection looks like 2 to 3 buckets worth. Yep, they do eat up floor space. The fix is less whammers.


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## HokieKen (Apr 14, 2015)

I have a drawer in my toolbox for claw hammers, rubber mallets and ball peens. I have a piece of pegboard that has some of the long hangers. I hang hatchets and roofing hammers on those. I can get 3 or 4 per pair of the hangers. Then I have a bucket with "special" hammers such as blacksmithing whackers. Wooden mallets of various persuasions are scattered about the shop.

So, I'll be watching and hoping for a brilliant idea that doesn't eat up space…


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## bigblockyeti (Sep 9, 2013)

So far, my research for more pictures show several used by blacksmiths that have a significant assortment of hammers that are needed for time sensitive projects (cooling metal) but they do take up floor space. As of now, I'm thinking of laying them all out exactly the same way on a sheet of 3/4" something I have around and run either screws or lag bolts in where needed for a hammer board. The tricky part is going to be keeping everything secured so it can't fall or be knocked off unintentionally.


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## HokieKen (Apr 14, 2015)

Maybe you could just get a couple of tater sacks and put them all in there.

Nah, nevermind. That's dumber than a bag of hammers.

Couldn't be helped.


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## pottz (Sep 15, 2015)

mine are mostly all in a drawer in a cabinet next to my assembly bench,and the rest in a rolling tool chest.


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## PPK (Mar 8, 2016)

World's worst sketch, but this is what I use. Very scalable for your larger amount of hammers.


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## Lazyman (Aug 8, 2014)

I made one similar to one I saw in a blacksmith's shop where he had 2 steel rods so that handles fit between the rods and the head hang on the rods. I hung mine on my tool wall which makes it super convenient and doesn't take up any drawer or floor space. I have also seen a similar one on the end of a bench or cabinet. I don't have as many as you (so I just used wood dowels instead of steel rods) but if you make more than one you can hang the most used hammers near the bench and the backups somewhere else.

Of course, the first thing I would recommend is to get rid of a few of the cheap duplicates. While you can never have too many clamps, just how many dead blow or rubber mallets can you use at once? Besides once you have a better way to store and organize them you won't misplace them and need a backup. 

Edit: here's a picture


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## bigblockyeti (Sep 9, 2013)

Nathan, that's very similar to what I've seen with many blacksmiths storage, usually right beside the anvil and free standing.

Pete, I've seen some similar to yours and I really like the idea of being able to grab the handle and go vs. plucking it out by the head (might be more cumbersome with heavy leather gloves) then grabbing the handle


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## Unknowncraftsman (Jun 23, 2013)

Is that a early Rocket hammer to the right of the Hart Framer ?


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## SMP (Aug 29, 2018)

I got my hammer storage techniques from the old Bugs Bunny cartoons. You want to have one within arms reach where ever you are in case you need to smash something


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## Knockonit (Nov 5, 2017)

hehe, i seem to have them everywhere, hate having to walk across shop to get a bammer, so they lay about always in the way, and never one with in arms reach when you need one, so i suffer the consequences.
rj in az


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## Lazyman (Aug 8, 2014)

I thought about Pete's design for ease of use (you can see I have 2 small ones like that) but opted for the blacksmith style to conserve limited wall space. You may also have to vary the spacing based upon the hammer, while the blacksmith design can handle most hammers whose heads aren't so long that the rods aren't far enough from the wall. Mine was sized to handle may largest mallet on the left. The other concern I had with that design is that if I packed them in too tightly, unless I put a locking device on each one, it is possible to knock the neighbors off the wall when you pull one out or simply bump them for some reason. The bench below the rack is actually attached to the wall so if I hammer on the bench, vibrations could theoretically make one fall so you would have to address that as well.

My only complaint about mine is that I should have made it a little longer to handle a few new acquisitions. I have a cross peen hammer that needs a home. I may have to move my veneer hammer to go with my hot hide glue gear to make room.


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## ibewjon (Oct 2, 2010)

Screw them to the wall and they won't fall.


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## KYtoolsmith (Oct 13, 2018)

This is what I use…









Hammers to hang hammers. 
Regards, The Kentucky Toolsmith!


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## bigblockyeti (Sep 9, 2013)

> Is that a early Rocket hammer to the right of the Hart Framer ?
> 
> - Aj2


No, it's a ~25 year old Craftsman framing hammer, I know the picture is hard to make out but it's a one piece forging and I've used that the most second only to the 3lb Stanley cross peen (former millwright) directly below the HART framer. I typically will have a tool belt on if I'm doing something where I need the same hammer repeatedly. Bench work or assembly, I'll have it laying near by, hopefully in the same place every time. I considered using rare earth magnets and allowing the face of the steel hammer to be held by those, but the size I would need would be expensive and the convex or waffle faces of the hammers still wouldn't allow great retention plus they can be a bit fragile.


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