A Light Pounding

For heavy duty construction projects you'll need the real tool - say a milled-head, hatchet-handled, 24-oz. framing hammer. But most of the routine household chores we do everyday calls for something with a lot less impact. All we need from a hammer is to nail up a picture-hanger, lightly knock open a stuck window frame, or pound a stubborn IKEA bookshelf together.

I've had this little hammer for maybe 20 years, and if I remember correctly, purchased from a designer/gizmo store called InGear (now long gone) in the Stanford shopping Mall, Palo Alto. Cleanly styled and perfectly balanced in the hand, this diminutive hammer is barely 10 inches long - ideally sized for everyday pounding. Its smooth face doesn't mar surfaces, its solid metal construction allows a powerful blow when needed, and its compact size lets it fit snugly in the slimmest drawers. Its most striking feature is it's bright warm red color and the very linear-styled, black rubber handle. This was a time when I bought just about anything that was cool looking and came in black and red - a color combination that was all the product design rage in the early eighties.