This common tool is made in at least thirty different forms, and some
styles in nine or ten different weights. For woodwork, the adze-eye
claw hammer, weight sixteen ounces, will answer all requirements. For
use with brads as small as 3/8 inch, a brad hammer of three or four
ounces is desirable. Both of these forms are provided with claws for
withdrawing nails. (Fig. 130.)
[Illustration: Fig. 130. Hammers]
Claw hammers are comparatively modern inventions, and there are men
now living who, when serving their apprenticeship, were obliged to
withdraw their nails with a pair of pinchers. At that period all nails
were wrought by hand, and houses are standing to-day on which the
clapboards are still held in place by nails forged on an anvil by hand.