Hit my hammer wrong for two years - A farrier in Kentucky set me straight

I've been forging knives as a hobby for about 2 years now, mostly out of my garage in Ohio. The whole time I was choking up on the hammer handle near the head, thinking it gave me more control. This past weekend I was at a little blacksmithing meetup in Lexington and a farrier watched me for maybe 5 minutes. He just walked over and said 'you're gonna wreck your elbow doing that' and showed me to grip further down the handle. I tried it and the hammer hit way harder with way less effort on my part. Felt like a total idiot for not figuring it out sooner. Has anyone else had that moment where you realize you've been using a basic tool wrong the whole time?

3 comments

3 Comments

davidkim11d ago

You ever read that old blacksmithing book "The Complete Modern Blacksmith"? There's a whole section in there where Alexander Weygers talks about how most people choke up on hammers because it feels safer but you're actually losing like 40 percent of your striking force. He called it the "death grip" habit. I tried switching after reading that and my arm stopped hurting after a week. Funny how something so simple messes with your whole body mechanics when you do it wrong for years.

kim.nina11d ago

I grew up watching my dad grip an axe right under the head for splitting kindling, and he'd always complain about his wrist hurting. It wasn't until a logger buddy watched him for maybe 10 minutes that he told him the same thing about moving his hand down. Did that farrier also mention anything about how your elbow should stay mostly straight through the swing, or did he just adjust your grip? I've heard that changing your stance can make as big a difference as the grip itself, so I'm curious if he gave you any other tips.

finleyl3911d ago

Actually that thing about the elbow staying straight is kinda backwards for most people. When you keep your arm locked straight you lose all the whip action from your shoulders and core. The whole point of the swing is to let your body rotate and let the axe head do the work. If your elbow is straight you're just muscling it with your shoulder which is how people blow out their rotator cuffs. I used to think the same thing until I watched some slow mo footage of competitive choppers. Their front arm bends naturally on the way up and straightens on the way down through the impact zone. So it's more about letting the arm move than forcing it to stay one way the whole time.