Hammers

There are many types of hammers. You got claw hammers, rubber mallets, sledgehammers, sheet metal hammers, etc. Use the right one of the job.

Safety

Please wear safety glasses WHENEVER using a hammer. The pressure involved are outrageous and objects hit with hammers can explode and go into your eyes. Always wear safety glasses.

My dad taught me 2 small taps then a hard hit. When using hammers for the first time, don't swing hard. Even when experienced, start with softer hits and work your way up to harder hits. When you are doing a lot of work, generally fewer hard hits are better than a lot of soft hits. So as your skill builds up, get used to smacking nails harder.

Inspect your hammer and make sure the head isn't about the fly off. If the metal head wobbles on the wood, get a different hammer. For this reason I like to buy hammers that are 1 steel piece and the head and handle are 1 piece.

This might sound obvious, put look directly at the thing you are hitting. This will make sure you hit it AND protect your eyes in case it explodes. If you are looking sideways at something that explodes, bits can go around your safety glasses and get into your eyes.

Consider wearing gloves when using a hammer.

Usage

Hold the hammer near the end, you want the weight of it to help you. Do 2 small taps then a hit. Repeat this, tap-tap-hit, tap-tap-hit. Then you get good. 

Claw hammers are designed to hook into nail heads for extraction. Make sure you have the head in snugly before pulling on the handle.

[insert image of claw hammer in nail]

Hammer Head Material

Sometimes you are hammering one part into another. Don't this if you aren't suppose to, try to lever or push it in first. If you HAVE to hammer something in, make sure you don't damage the part (such as a bolt head) by smacking it with a hardened steel hammer. Rubber mallets are generally the first tool when you want to apply force to something without denting it. However, it has to be a large surface or you will damage the rubber. If you are hitting a steel or aluminum bolt head, you might want to consider using a brass hammer, or get a brass punch, or a block of wood. You place an object between the hammer and the bolt to transfer the force, the brass/wood gets damaged, the bolt stays fine.