Just realized my hammer head weight was fighting me for years

Tbh I've been swinging a 3 pound cross peen since I started in 2018, thought heavy meant better control. Then a guy at the Friday hammer-in in Austin watched me work a leaf spring and said I was muscling it instead of letting the steel do the job. He handed me a 2 pound rounding hammer and told me to try the same draw out. Night and day, I was overstriking every third hit and bending my wrist weird to compensate. Switched my main hammer to 2.5 pounds for the last 6 weeks and my shoulder pain is gone, plus my scrolls are way more even. Anyone else drop down in hammer weight and see a huge difference in their finish work?

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king.ruby1mo ago

Man, this hit home hard. I spent damn near four years swinging a 3 pounder too, thought I was building character or something. My elbow started flaring up bad, and I just blamed it on age. Then I watched a video of myself and noticed I was choking up on the handle like crazy just to feel in control. Downed to a 2.25 pound and it was like the hammer was doing half the work for me. My flatter lines came out cleaner and I stopped having that weird snap in my wrist after a long session. Funny how we think brute force is the answer until somebody hands us the right tool.

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