The Hammer Blow: Let It Fall, Do Not Force It

Grip near the end of the handle, not up by the head, and hold it about as firmly as you would hold a bird — enough that it cannot fly away, not enough to hurt it. Choking up on the handle feels controlled and shortens your lever, so every blow delivers less and you compensate by pushing harder. Holding the end gives the head the longest arc and the most speed for the least effort. Let the handle pivot slightly in your fingers as the head rebounds. That rebound is free energy for the next blow if you let it happen, and a jarring impact travelling into your wrist if you clamp down on it. Blacksmith's elbow is a real injury and it comes almost entirely from gripping.

Raise the hammer and let it fall, guiding rather than driving. A relaxed arm and a loose wrist produce a faster head than a tense one, because tense muscles fight each other. For heavier work the body joins in: a slight drop of the shoulder and a hinge at the elbow, with the wrist snapping at the last moment to accelerate the head. The wrist snap is where most of the extra speed comes from, and it is the part that takes practice. If you are getting tired quickly, you are pushing. A smith works for hours because almost none of the energy is theirs — it is gravity and the hammer's own mass, applied repeatedly.

Accuracy beats force by a wide margin. Ten accurate blows in one spot move far more metal than thirty scattered ones, and they leave a surface that does not need grinding out afterwards. Watch the WORK, not the hammer. Your hand goes where your eye is, and watching the hammer head guarantees you will miss. This is the same instruction as watching the far corner when sawing square. Practise cold on a bar of mild steel or even on a block of modelling clay: draw a line and try to hit it twenty times running. Five minutes of that is worth more than an hour of hopeful hammering at hot steel, and it costs no fuel.