My Friend, the Vaughan Professional Rip Hammer, Model 99

My hammer broke yesterday. There was a 16p nail sticking out of the safe room wall and I was too lazy or too rushed to go get the right tool. My hammer is a twenty-eight year old Vaughan 16oz professional rip hammer. Model 99, no less. I've been beating on nails for about thirty years. That particular hammer has so sweet a balance, one could drive nails straight and true in the dark of night. So I pried and feel/hear the crunching/ripping of the fibers of wood in my hickory handle, tearing and splitting. Crap.

So handle number five goes on today. I would like to get another model 99 hammer and Vaughan still makes them, but no one seems to carry that particular model. Sigh. I can find those humongous rip hammers with the waffle head but that's overkill, and leaves a really ugly mark on wood. I'm an interior trim guy and cabinetmaker by inclination so it has to look nice. Even the framing should look nice.

To really do it right, the handle should be shaved instead of sawn out of hickory, since it disturbs the fibers less and makes the handle last longer. Oh well, only nine bucks for the only handle the store had, plus some extra wedges.