What's In a Picture

It's just a hammer. Nothing special, just a 20 ounce Stanley claw hammer made in England and bought by me for £1, which was almost two days pay for me back in March 1965 when I bought it new.

The hickory shaft is still the original, the hammer face has never chipped, and the claw still hooks for pulling nails as needed just fine. I'm not sure why, but I posted the same picture on my FaceBook page and over 20 hours, there was enough interest for people to register 227,000 views with 2,400 approvals. Of further interest, my FB post of the cabinet pieces I designed and made for the Cabinet Room of the White House only favoured 267,000 views and that one had President Trump, his Cabinet and the White House pictures in four full colour grandeur!

Hickory definitely makes the best wooden handles of all woods––bar none. Imagine, 60 years on and still good. And there's my name stamped in for posterity. P. A. SELLERS. There is a subtle difference, though; I have two name stamps. My early one says; P. A.SELLERS, my later one just uses my one initial and says; P SELLERS.

I had my first name stamp made in 1968. There is plenty of heft to it, and it stamped all of my tools for a decade. I used it on steel as well as wood with no issues. You reach a point where the name stamp is not altogether necessary. Through my years as an apprentice and then my journeyman years, the name stamp identified your tools when you worked alongside others who would have almost identical tools to you. It was a godsend in disputes, I can tell you, and this did happen a couple of times, especially if your version was better than someone elses.

Side by side, you can see the weightier of the two name stamps. The top one, my first, is still my favourite to use.

The wedges, steel and corner to corner wooden one, are still tight and never needed deepening despite the years of use, driving and pulling nails and such rigorous work.

Look at the claw. No signs of stress or poor use and when I pull the vee of it onto a nail it bites like a piranha every time.

So, there you have it. I don't really use the hammer so much these days. I prefer my Estwing ripping claw for nailing as in carpentry, but the reason I don't use it is that at the bench I have no need for this kind of hammer or weight.

Two days later, the number of views of my hammer has passed 300,000. That's more than the collection of four pics showing my cabinets in the White House and President Trump's gathering of cabinet members circling the Ford table. What a remarkable thing that a hammer can have so much meaning for everyone.