A hammer seems like a pretty straightforward tool.
You pound things with the face or you pry things out with the peen or claw (those are the technical terms for the front and back).
But it turns out most of us are missing out on a whole bunch of features of the seemingly simple tool.
And the YouTube channel The Maker is here to fill us in.
A viral hammer video?
The Maker is devoted to teaching people tips and tricks for working on projects around the house.
But one video, in particular, has become wildly popular.
It turns out we’re not alone in our hammer naivete, or at least hammer videos are far more popular than we could have ever imagined.
In just a few months, The Maker’s video “Few People Know About This Hammer Feature | Hidden Features of Hammer” has been viewed over 12 MILLION times!
Not only is it widely viewed, but people commented on it in a variety of languages to say they learned new things – among them how not to damage the wood when hammering in a nail, how to remove a very long or very small nail, and how to hammer in tight spaces.
There are 8 tricks in total.
Tools of the trade
We’ll show you a few spoilers, but you can also view the entire video down below to get more tricks and more details on these hacks.
First up is learning how to hammer in a tight spot that won’t accommodate any back and forth movement with a large object.
Here’s what we mean:
How can you possibly hammer in that nail?
No one could get a hammer in that tight space.
But it turns out you don’t have to. In this case, the hammer gets an assist from a flat-head screwdriver.
By placing the screwdriver on top of the nail and holding it steady, you can use the hammer to tap the shank instead of the nail.
The screwdriver will then drive the nail into the wood.
Don’t damage your wood
The next tip had us a little confused until the folks at Home Dzine explained it.
It’s all about hammering in a nail without damaging the surrounding wood.
Sometimes we get a little overzealous with the hammer and end up driving it in too far, which can splinter or dent the wood around it.
Luckily, there’s a solution, and it involves adding a layer of glue to the head of the hammer with a standard glue gun.
It’ll be easy to peel off later, but in the meantime will dampen the force (and the noise) of the hammer for those who need a light touch.
We definitely wouldn’t have thought of that one on our own!
Straighten up stray nails
Sometimes we have to use multiple nails and they get away from us while we’re working.
So the next trick involves a way to ensure a nail doesn’t roll away and cause issues later for your foot or your vacuum.
You just need a magnet.
Then you can drill it into the bottom of the hammer grip (or glue it if you don’t have steady hands).
What’s the point?
Well, now you have a way to gather up all your nails and keep them in one place while you work!
Dealing with tiny nails
If you’re dealing with particularly tiny nails, chances are your hammer’s claw won’t be able to get any traction and it’ll be difficult or impossible to pull them out.
That’s when a drill might come in handy (as long as the drill bit is just a bit larger than the nail head).
The Maker suggests drilling a hole in the hammer’s head (in this case, they’re using a hammer without a claw).
Then, you can easily fit the hole onto the nail. By using a bending and pulling motion, it’s now easy to wiggle it out.
(Of course, this won’t work if your hammer’s head is made of solid steel – you won’t be able to drill a hole in that!)
These are just a few of the tricks The Maker has hammered home. And we have to admit that most of them are things we never would have come up with on our own.
If you’d like to see more clever uses for a hammer, be sure to scroll down below for the full video.
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