Hammer grip debate: did I muscle through it wrong for 8 years?

I was at a demo in Portland last summer watching this older smith shape a scroll and I noticed he barely swung hard. His hammer just sort of dropped and bounced. Meanwhile I've been white-knuckling my rounding hammer like I'm driving fence posts for almost a decade. That little click in my elbow that kept flaring up started making sense. So which side are you on: do you grip firm and power through or let the hammer weight do the work with a relaxed wrist? I'm trying to retrain muscle memory but it feels like losing control. Has anyone else had that moment where your whole technique turned out to be brute force instead of finesse?

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fiona13012d ago

Ron, that older smith's "drop and bounce" technique is exactly what fixed my jacked up wrist three years back. Did you notice if his thumb was wrapped or resting on top when he did that lighter swing? I'm asking because I'm still fighting the urge to death grip and that thumb position was the only thing that finally clicked for me.