As mentioned a few days ago, today I took delivery of a Thor dead blow nylon hammer.

I did some research as there are several weights.
I started with the standard Thor spec. These are the ones with a copper surface on one side and a coiled leather surface on the other.
#1 size is 710gm
#2 size is 1070gm
#3 size is 1600gm
I have all three and #3 is really at the useable limit for swinging. For me anyway!

The dead blows come in the following sizes, with two replaceable nylon surfaces.
#1010 is 525gm (1lb)
#1212 is 700gm (1.75lb)
#1414 is 900gm (2lb)
#1616 is 1250gm (2.75lb)
#2020 is 2250gm (4.25lb)
There may well be a #1818 but I didn't come across this size.

I have gone for the #1616 because it falls between the weights of the standard #2 & #3. I think I got this right. It's big but manageable. The biggest size would have been too unwieldy. Keith at BHM uses one, but his is smaller than #1616.

At the same time I bought a replacement coiled leather refill for my Thor #2 which is "well used". It took some persuasion to get the old one out, and the new one had to be pressed in like a kingpin bush. It's a tight fit, eased with a smear of Vaseline. (Another use).

I'll post some pictures when I get chance.

What misleading catalogue numbers!

This is my 'used' number 2 leather end.......
Three cable ties necessary to keep it useable.



This is the new end. Significant pressure is necessary to install.



Here are all three sizes of traditional Thor. The difference is more pronounced than you see in a picture. I've had the number 2 for a very long time.



Here's the dead blow in the right place, weight wise.




It's a big b*****.........
Possibly the 1414 would have been heavy enough. Still time to add one to the fleet!





Obviously I have a huge range of conventional hammers, some inherited, from toffee breaking size to only just swingable size. All have battle damage.

You take your nut cracking serious then Dave?

There's very little a hammer can't fix.........

My dad used to say ...

Don't force it...use a bigger hammer!!

In 1973 I was working for a well known Computer Bureaux. I arrived at the data centre at 02:30 or so to be greeted by the shift leader with the usual 18 inches of hex core dump ...after and hour ish I had punched up the cards to recompile and rerun to fix the problem... IBM user manual 'probable user error' - bo*lcks. Went to machine room to load cards and saw and IBM engineer wielding a Thor like hammer with great gusto on a chain printer - whereupon he turned to me and said 'percussive adjustment' I have used a lot of percussive adjustment over the years

How do you get the old hide out of the hammer head, Dave? I've got a knackered hide face in mine and you've motivated me to replace it.

Snap-On do some really good dead blow hammers.

Yebbut why buy foreign when you can buy British?