Stiletto Hammer Review

Stiletto 14 Oz. Hammer Overview

Isn’t a hammer just a hammer?  Well, yes it is, but as you know there are different types of hammers such a claw hammer, framing hammer, brick laying hammer and more.  For this review we are going to cover the Stiletto Framing hammer.  The Stiletto is one of our favorite hammers around.  Out of the four guys who run this site, three of us have used a Stiletto hammer in our day to day work for a long time.  Some longer than others, sorry just had to get that rip on some of the old timers.  Stiletto hammers are known for two things, their quality and their price.  Ask any tradesman who is the top manufacturer of hammers and most will name the Stiletto, they are the Rolls Royce of the striking tools.

For this you pay more than your $10 hammer you buy at your local hardware store, but there is a reason.  You pay more because of the quality.  Stiletto hammers have great balance and great feel in your hand and when you are using a striking tool day in and day out, it wears on your wrist, your elbows and your shoulders.  The Stiletto with its lightweight and great balance helps relieve a lot of these problems.  This is primarily because of the materials they use in the handles and the hammer head.  Plus they have great balance which gives the user greater leverage when striking.

For this review we are taking a closer look at the 14oz. Framer hammer with a Titanium head and 16″ straight hickory handle.  The face is a Milled Driving face and according to Stiletto it has the same driving force as a 24 oz. steel hammer with less recoil shock than steel.  If you have used a Stiletto hammer and steel hammer, you can easily believe this to be true.

The Stiletto Hammer Review

We have to admit, reviewing a hammer is not easy to do.  This is one of those tools you just need to try to believe.  The video was also hard to put together as hammering a nail into anything isn’t to impressive, since you can pretty much use any hard object and pound a nail into something.  However we wanted to show it in action and also cover some of the most important things about this hammer, which we pretty much did in the overview section.

As we noted above, we have been using these hammers for a long time because they are worth every penny.  The Hickory handles on these hammers are nice and light with a large area to grip.  The Titanium head is also light, but not too light.  Put this all together and you get one great hammer.  What we really like best about this hammer, is well two items.  First the leverage you get.  Holding this hammer properly allows the user to get more down force when driving home a nail.  When you use a steel hammer, the weight and your body is doing more of the work.  You would think a lighter hammer would cause the users to have to put more muscle into the swing, but that’s not the case.  Take a breaker bar.  When you are trying to loosen a nut and you have a short socket, you need more force to break lose the nut.  When you use a breaker bar, a longer bar, you can get more leverage and more strength, due to the longer bar.  The same holds true for this hammer, even though it is lighter, you have a better leverage available to the user and can actually get a better swing.

The second item we love about this hammer is the feel.  When you actually hit a nail, you have a better feel, so the user can feel more of the work.  We are not saying it recoils more or causes pain to your hand.  If you golf then you can understand when you use your driver and hit the ball in the sweet spot with a good club as opposed to hitting it with a bargain bin club. This is very important when your driving nails all day long, you want to make sure the nail went into the material the proper way.

Another item to note is the magnetic start.  On the top of the handle there is a groove where a nail can lie.  There is also a magnet to hold the nail in place.  Now while you probably wouldn’t use this every time you drive a nail, it is a great feature for ladder work or other hard to reach places.  On a ladder you always want three points of contact for safety reasons.  This would be a perfect place to use the magnetic feature.  Place the nail in the holder and you can take one swing to start the nail, while having three points of contact with the ladder.

Final thoughts on the Stiletto Hammer

If you are a weekend warrior and want a great hammer and don’t mind the price tag, take a look at this hammer.  For those of us who use a hammer to make a living, this is a must.  Yet you are paying more, but in the long run it is well worth the extra cost.  This is very light and very easy to work with.  This hammer saves your arm, shoulder, wrist and more.

More information on the Stiletto Hammer

You can see more information on the Stiletto Hammer site