Hammers

Hi all, what is the common hammer in Viet Nam?

Here in US, since we started building balloon-frame houses, the hammer

you see around is the claw hammer. One end is the round, flat head

tempered for driving nails and the other is a curved claw to grasp the

head of a driven nail to lever out with the hammer handle.

We have ball-peen hammers, mallets, shingle hammers, machinist's and

rock and masonry hammers, but the hammer you see on a worksite or grab

in the household is the claw hammer.

In Paris the ubiquitous hammer is the masonry hammer, for edging and

blunting stone. One end is a square flattish striking head and the

other a wedge at ninety degrees to the handle, to swing into a crack and

lever it wide, tempered for strength without brittleness.

What hammer do you see on a worksite in Viet Nam? A mallet for pounding

sand on a worksite? A machinist's hammer in a factory? Do people have

a hammer around the house?

Dan

What an interesting and esoteric question!

In my experience in VN, the claw hammer is the most common. However, it is

designed subtly differently than what I am used to here in the US. It is

often smaller and lighter than our common hammer, and the angle between

the handle and the head seems very slightly different. I noticed that

Vietnamese workmen do not bang in the nails with the big swinging,

wrist-snapping power that their American carpenter counterparts do. (I did

a little framing when I was young and was taught the "proper" profesional

way to hit a nail. Not that I ever got it right, but that's another

story...)

Hammers were not uncommon in households, like here -- urbanites masy or

may not have one, rural folks could almost always get ahold of one

immediately, either their own or a neighbor's.

I have seen a full array of hammers for sale in hardware stores in both

Hanoi and HCMC, from large and small sledges to wooden mallets to many

sizes of ball-peen to claw hammers. Sledges are very common on building

sites where existing brick walls need to be razed.

So, why do you ask???

Joe Hannah

Thanks for all the great answers, exactly what I needed. I was editing

a translation into English by someone in France. It mentioned a hammer

and I wondered what that could mean.

Dan

In addition, I think there is very interesting work to be done on the

technology produced in the north during the 1980s - for example, the

sideline production of light manufactures and electronics from within

military factories for sale on the free market.

Adam

Dan's question about hammers reminds me that as

far as I know, no international text on the

history of technology in Vietnam exists ࠬa

Joseph Needham for China. I think that this is a

gaping hoel in our understanding of material

culture in Vietnam.

David Del Testa

I saw David DelTesta's posting and want to point out that David Biggs is working on a history of technology. He will present a paper at the AAS on motors.

Best,

Christina