RR Buildings Framing Hammer Hall of Fame

hey what's up everybody and welcome back to the channel my name is kyle and i'm out here in my shop working on cleaning it up and i come across my stash of hammers and i thought you know what this is kind of cool i started reminiscing i put up some stories on instagram i took some pictures people really seem to kind of resonate with the hammers i think because these hammers tell a story and i think everybody out there if you're watching this you're a carpenter you're a builder you've been in the trades you've got a similar thing that really tells a story about your journey and where you started and where you are at this moment this is my journey and i thought i'm gonna make a quick video i'm gonna talk about it so these are my hammers this is my journey and i'm gonna do a quick little story time with you guys and give you guys a little bit of insight of my life as a carpenter so if we go back about 15 or so years i was a junior in college i bought my house my first house from my in-laws they had it it was an empty home for about 50 years but it was in complete disarray the floors had sags that you didn't want to walk on you felt like you were going to walk through them there was a foot of water in the basement most of the year and it just needed so much work that i probably should have pushed it in the hole but my dad told me don't worry kyle we can remodel this it's going to be awesome and i said all right let's go for it so in comes my first hammer i don't know when i got this i really can't probably pinpoint the exact time it just was always there i think it honestly came from my dad's toolbox and it just somehow ended up in my tool belt during our first days of demolition and working around my property i instantly knew that this was not going to cut it for me so i put this thing away and i bought what really is my first hammer the first hammer that i ever really owned and used uh was this estwing 28 ounce framing hammer that i dubbed the meat cleaver and i i did that because man when this thing was new it had a nasty waffle head on it and when i was putting a nail if i missed it was like slamming a meat cleaver into my finger and i did that more times than i could probably count but this hammer as you can see is probably 15 years old still looks great still operates the same as it did when i got it but man it is not the most ergonomically friendly hammer if you use it for too long your arms are going to be like hanging like a noodle and and obviously you know at that time in my career i was young dumb i didn't know much thought that i was you know big and tough so man i'm gonna just keep swinging this thing but it does make a great demolition hammer which is what i was doing a lot of and just take a ton of abuse you look at all these little scars around the head and you know each one of those probably has a story in itself but this hammer is what i carried on my tool belt for probably the first six or seven years as a carpenter you know everywhere i went i always felt like yeah i got a big hammer but what happened was in my career i started getting out of residential remodeling because a lot of you guys don't know this but i started in residential remodeling i did decking i did flooring i did bathrooms kitchens additions i built new homes and it was all fine i loved doing it because i was working for myself i was building things i was seeing something from nothing but then i did a post frame for my wife's grandpa and i instantly fell in love i knew at that moment that i wanted to do more post frame it also made me realize because in post frame you swing your hammer a lot you hand drive a lot of nails and that has to do with you know a whole nother video about connection and engineering in in in the building itself but this hammer quickly became like my arch nemesis because i would lay in bed at night and my hand would be throbbing or falling asleep my arm would be dead when i woke up because of the amount of wear and tear i was doing on my shoulder my elbow my wrist and i'm i'm old enough now to admit like this was too much of a hammer for that so i went out bought this titanium delugey half the weight this is only a 14 ounce wood handle it just felt good in your hand a nice lightweight titanium head and you know it just felt good it is a real joy to pound nails with this hammer you can see the amount of nails i have pounded with this thing because the waffle cone is like completely gone it's worn down you can see how many times i've probably missed the head completely and just been wrecking my wood handle i guarantee this is not the first handle because i've actually got another head that i just finally gave up on and i just bought a whole new kit you know at some point in time this hammer became you know a nice framing hammer for me on the post frame site because it didn't wear me out to swing it all day because it didn't weigh so much you know i could do it without that wear and tear on my shoulder or fatigue i should say like there is when you're swinging a 28 ounce the problem with these hammers because i both i kind of went through both of these this is the titanium delugey this is the titanium 14 ounce stiletto both are very similar they hit very similar when you're using them you know the claw design is a little bit different the deluge is a little bit longer the stiletto is probably a little bit more geared towards uh pulling out some larger nails just the way the the way that this you know design is but i went through so many handles i would break handles left and right and it wasn't just because of hitting you don't always do a perfect job so if you have to pull nails i would stupidly just go ahead and just crank on it with my wood handle and it just became clear that i needed to do something different so i went out and i bought something that i didn't think i could ever justify and that was a 220 maybe 220 plus dollar stiletto tb2 which was kind of like the mecca of hammers i remember i would always walk by them in the store and think man someday if i could justify buying that i'm gonna i was at that point in my career where i i knew i could i would say that was four four years ago or so that i finally bought a tb2 and instantly i knew why i should have done it earlier in my career but probably glad i didn't because i don't think i would have appreciated it you know the amount of or i should say lack of vibration when hitting nails with this titanium i kind of was getting the durability and strength of this steel s wing but i was also getting the what i would say ergonomics and lightweight feel of the wood handled hammers that i previously had all in one package and it just felt great it was kind of like finally made it you know i finally made it this is the hammer that i will probably have now for the rest of my life because as this head wears down and you lose your waffle cone you can just go ahead and replace it it's awesome however it didn't take very long for me to start having some issues it annoyed me because the head no matter how much i tightened this thing the head would always become unaligned so i couldn't put a nail set in there it would rattle around and come loose my grip is what really though pushed me over the edge i was getting out of my lift one day it got caught on something and it just ripped the tip off i was so distraught man i was sad because this wasn't that old of a hammer i thought it would last me a good long time because i spent so much money on it and i found out i couldn't just replace the grip i would have to send this hammer off to stiletto for them to do it and i just didn't have time for it lucky for me social media was just becoming more popular and i started seeing these hammers on instagram from a guy named mark martinez that looked very similar to my stiletto but everybody was saying how awesome they were how amazing they hit and i noticed that you could replace your grip so anytime that your grip wore down anytime something were to happen to your grip you just cut it off slipped on a new one and in a couple minutes you're right back to it with a brand new grip i also noticed there was no head that had to be adjusted or i should say face on the hammer that had to be adjusted nail set one piece no worries about that ever being an issue if ever you broke a claw which i thankfully never did but i know guys that did break claws on their stiletto that is the entire hammer this is one piece you literally are sol with mark's new hammer you could break a claw wear down a face remove the grip and everything is replaceable you just keep the almost indestructible titanium handle and you're good to go forever that was the hammer i knew i had to have next i got this three years ago probably now i would say about three years ago funny thing is as soon as i swung this hammer i'll never forget i know the exact job site i was on i know the exact task i was doing i was building a 30 by 40 little garage and i was framing my door jambs driving 20 penny nails in and i thought to myself man i don't like this hammer i called markup and i was like mark i think i'm going to send it back i don't like it and he said to me kyle keep the hammer for a week make sure that you want to send it back and then call me and let me know after about a week's time i genuinely don't think i could have went back to any of these hammers it's just different the way the head is steel the handle is all titanium the balance of it is not like any one of these hammers and it hits with the force i would say comparable maybe not quite a 28 ounce i think they say like a 24-ounce s-wing but it doesn't wear my body down it's kind of like using a 14-ounce hammer but with all of that durability and uh overall usefulness and longevity that you get out of having either a full steel hammer or the tb2 i don't know what is the next innovation i don't know what my journey is i don't know what the next hammer is in my journey however i just thought this was a cool video to make this is so important to me that you guys understand i'm not trying to sell you ana martinez this is only my journey this is only my transition from here to where i'm at now which is more like this guy here this is the first martinez and i'll just probably keep this in my shop kind of a memento i don't know why i ever put this green grip on ugliest sin it does hold a special place in my heart i don't know if you guys know this but mark martinez the owner of martinez tools the m1 he owned stiletto he sold it to tti which is the parent company to milwaukee he designed developed the tb2 he designed and developed the 14 ounce that i got here when he sold and got out he thought he was done with tools forever but he knew the shortcomings of the tb2 he knew the warranty issues he knew what carpenters had problems with and nobody was fixing it hence why he came out with the martinez m1 and i got to commend him for that i know mark personally now he ain't doing it for the money i know what you're thinking well then why are you selling these hammers for 200 300 well that's because they're all manufactured in the u.s he's got people working for him and he wants to put food on their tables regardless that literally has nothing to do with this video so don't bother dropping comments down below about how expensive these hammers are uh we all drive a certain car and we could all drive the cheapest car out there but we don't because we want to have finer things in life and some cars get us from point a to point b a lot more comfortable if you're young if you're in the trades if you're trying to figure out how do i get to the point where i'm swinging a 300 hammer it takes time not everybody needs to go out and buy this and i would tell them if they asked me uh yeah m1 is sweet but if you're a trim carpenter don't buy it if you're a plumber don't buy it of course if you're out there banging concrete forms maybe you don't buy it for me this is my journey i swing my hammer every day i pound large fasteners and this is the best option for me and my body to do it for a long time and to be as efficient and effective as possible i thought it was a cool video maybe that's narcissistic to think that anybody cares about my journey as a carpenter or the hammers that have gotten me from point a to point b i'm curious what is your hammer journey what does that look like drop that down below in the comments i i like reading those stories and let me know if uh if you guys are swinging any of these hammers and what you like or dislike about them i would love to read that as well so if you haven't already hit that subscribe button i greatly appreciate it and remember i'm not selling you anything i'm only giving you my experiences answering questions that i receive in dms or emails or whatever so if you have a question if you're curious about something or you want me to talk about a tool or a process or anything you can always message me you can always drop it in the comments i do my best to answer them and i'm always looking for a great idea for some content that's going to help somebody so i would appreciate that if you haven't hit that subscribe button and we'll catch you guys on the next video have a good one

Channel: RR Buildings

Views: 373,081

Keywords: framing hammer hall of fame, framing hammer, rr buildings framing hammer, rr buildings, hammer, hall of fame, framing, best framing hammer, hand tools, titanium hammer, mark martinez, stiletto hammer, r&r buildings, martinez hammer

Id: QSDAajYK9no

Length: 13min 25sec (805 seconds)

Published: Wed Feb 19 2020