Hammers - drive nails, fit parts, and break up objects

A tool meant to deliver blows to a target, causing it to move or deform or even break. The most common uses are for driving nails, fitting parts, and breaking up objects. Hammers are often designed for a specific purpose, and so their design varies quite a lot. Usual features are a handle and a head, with the balance firmly in the head. The head is composed of a flat striking surface on one end, and a peen on the other. The peen can be shaped like a claw or wedge to pull nails, or like a ball as in the ball-peen hammer.

The hammer is used in many professions, and is one of the most basic tools along with the knife. The concept of putting a handle on a weight to make it more convenient to use and this has led to the very first tools and/or weapons ever invented. In the middle Ages, the war hammer was developed when edged weapons could no longer easily penetrate some forms of armor.

The hammer takes its place in modern weapons in the form of the firearm hammer or firing-pin hammer, a component of a firearm, which strikes the percussion-sensitive part of a cartridge causing the firearm to discharge.

Well-known Hammer forms include

• Firearm hammer Carpenter's hammer, used for nailing
  1. Framing hammer
  2. Claw hammer
• Upholstery hammer
• Construction hammer, including sledgehammer
• Ball-peen hammer or Mechanic's hammer,
• Cross-peen hammer or Warrington hammer
• Mallet including rubber hammer and dead blow hammer
• Maul
• Sledgehammer
• Steam hammer
• Stonemason's hammer
• Lump hammer or club hammer