Hate America? Boycotting American products? If you are a builder or DIYer with these feelings we have some bad news. Not only are George W and his kinfolk good at starting un-winnable wars, our friends across the pond also happen to make the best hammer you will ever use.

The handle of an Estwing fits as if they had taken a mould of your hand, dashed off to the factory and made a grip just for you. But strangely, it fits everyone. Despite our different sized hands at The Building Experience (don’t read too much into this, but Big Dicks are the biggest) we can all use the same hammer comfortably. Perfectly weighted and very difficult to break (we’ve never broken one, and we tend to break every tool eventually), the Estwing is a firm favourite at TBE.

The Estwing range stretches to axes, club hammers and other striking tools, but at the very least get yourself one of their basic claw hammers available in weights of 16, 20 and 24oz. As a gift idea, buy you Dad, brother, son etc one of their extremely attractive leather handled hammers.

A hammer is a simple tool, and there is not much to add other than to say Estwing have perfected it. Until you use one, you won’t appreciate how good they are. Likewise, you only need to use one once and you will never use another hammer again.

We would welcome any feedback about your experiences with Estwings, or perhaps you have an alternative hammer you want to tell us about. We would be particularly pleased to hear about Estwings’ radical weight forward hammers. We have never used them and would like to know what they are like.

Why do we like it? 

• Simple design, solid construction
• The most comfortable tool you will ever pick up
• Tough and gimmick free

Availability

• All good tool shops, including B&Q
• Readily available from the internet, including Screwfix
• Expect to pay £25-30 for the 20oz vinyl grip claw hammer.