Hammers?

[Captain America]

How important is it to have a geo hammer when fossil hunting? What exactly do you do with it, other than trying to crack open a concretion?

[Kane]

I find it to be a sturdy, reliable, and versatile tool - far more than, say, a nail hammer. It also very much depends on the medium one is working with. The blunt end is not only good for concretions, but splitting layers; the pointed end is great for more delicate prying or more pinpoint layer splitting. It can also be used as a small, handy lever. If I'm working against a cliff face (with a bit of pitch, not entirely vertical), it has been useful for driving it in overburden and climbing. The pointed end can also be useful for removing small amounts of overburden (for large amounts, a pickaxe or shovel is best). 

 

All that being said, a geo hammer is but one tool in the kit. Sledges, brick hammers, and the like can also be useful insofar as there is a "right" tool for any job. 

[Ludwigia]

It is also so that a geo hammer is formed in such a way which allows for extreme precision when striking, much more so than a normal hardware store hammer, since the thin shaft and the head are one. It feathers nicely and doesn't bother the wrists and elbows so much. Also, the longer the shaft, the more power for exact splitting and chipping.

[Miocene_Mason]

I'm very amateur but one substitute that I use is a regular hammer you get at a hardware store and a screwdriver. Different screw drivers for different precision, I strike the end when the tip is on a stone and it splits shale, and can be used to dig things out, as well as a lever. Good luck!

[Darktooth]

3 hours ago, WhodamanHD said:

I'm very amateur bur on substitute that I use is a regular hammer you get at a hardware store and a screwdriver. Different screw drivers for different precision, I strike the end when the tip is on a stone and it splits shale, and can be used to dig things out, as well as a lever. Good luck!

You would do yourself right by spending some money on a crack hammer and cold chisels. They really don't cost that much. Hitting a screwdriver with a regular hammer is just unsafe. Always use the appropriate tool for the job. 

[Miocene_Mason]

9 minutes ago, Darktooth said:

You would do yourself right by spending some money on a crack hammer and cold chisels. They really don't cost that much. Hitting a screwdriver with a regular hammer is just unsafe. Always use the appropriate tool for the job. 

I probably will eventually, but for my purposes the ol' hammer 'n' flathead have done pretty well. Most shale I've encountered so far it pretty bedded so a few taps is usually enough.

[Ludwigia]

7 hours ago, WhodamanHD said:

I probably will eventually, but for my purposes the ol' hammer 'n' flathead have done pretty well. Most shale I've encountered so far it pretty bedded so a few taps is usually enough.

Ok. As long as you're in soft shale you're fine, but what do you use for splitting hard limestone, for instance?

[Darktooth]

9 hours ago, WhodamanHD said:

I probably will eventually, but for my purposes the ol' hammer 'n' flathead have done pretty well. Most shale I've encountered so far it pretty bedded so a few taps is usually enough.

Sorry I am just a firm believer in safety. Using inappropriate tools for any job is bad practice in my opinion.

[Captain America]

I've got an engineer's hammer but cannot find that nice cold chisel I used for some masonry work a couple of years ago. I loaned it to a friend, and you can guess the rest of the sad story. . .

[Miocene_Mason]

5 hours ago, Ludwigia said:

Ok. As long as you're in soft shale you're fine, but what do you use for splitting hard limestone, for instance?

Have not yet run into that. (Okay that's a lie, I got sent a piece of Dolomite, and I can chip it, but breaking it is going to require more than my normal 'make-do' methods.) I think I may have a chisel somewhere though, have to look around.

 

2 hours ago, Darktooth said:

Sorry I am just a firm believer in safety. Using inappropriate tools for any job is bad practice in my opinion.

You are right and I will switch it out, I've fallen head first into fossil hunting without much preparation. I have a little fossil ID guide and in the beginning it has tools for fossil hunting, few of which I have. Sometimes ingenuity is all I got, (which is why I'm probably gonna make a sieve, sounds easy enough, just mesh and wood).

 

 

[Ptychodus04]

Cold chisels are probably the worst choice for splitting soft shale though. They cause the shale to crumble rather than cleave. For splitting slabs of shale, I have a couple 1/8" x 2" x 12" high carbon steel bars sharpened to a chisel edge and heat treated. They are awesome for smacking with a hammer! You could even use low carbon steel without the heat treat (for those poor souls without a forge or acetylene torch), you would just have to sharpen it more often.

 

Cold chisels are awesome for cutting through shale in order to pedestal a specimen for jacketing though.

[RJB]

  I do have much smaller hammers and chisles of all sizes, but here is my bigger stuff that i use for all kinds of rock out in the field.  the smaller stuff I use is mostly for pre prep once I get home.  Lots more control with the smaller stuff in order to get ready for prep.    Some really thin chisles that @Ptychodus04 has mentioned also come in very handy for some of the softer stuff.  If your new at this, some trial and error may be needed. 

 

RB

[Nimravis]

I agree on all points made by @Kane and @Ludwigia , plus I feel that the Eastwing hammers that I use are extremely balanced. Of the two that I own below. I really prefer the smaller of the two. I use it to open Mazon Creek concretions, and with all of the concretions that I have opened, I have never hit my fingers- YEA.

 

 

 

[RJB]

@Nimravis, some well used hammers ya got there.  I myself have lost one finger nail and one thumb nail in my travels.  Ouch!!!  Well, and one big toe nail too, but that was a rock and not a hammer.

 

RB

[Nimravis]

1 hour ago, RJB said:

@Nimravis, some well used hammers ya got there.  I myself have lost one finger nail and one thumb nail in my travels.  Ouch!!!  Well, and one big toe nail too, but that was a rock and not a hammer.

 

RB

I feel you pain- when I was 18 I was on my dad's roof helping him  put down shingles and I took off the front tip of my thumb with a shingle hammer, if that was not bad enough I hit the same thumb in the same spot the next day.