How can I avoid hurting my fingers when using a hammer

Question

Whenever I have to hammer a nail into something (the wall for a picture mount, a piece of wood for a project, etc.), I hurt my fingers when I slam the hammer against the nail. Even when I don't hit my fingers, I'm scared that I will.

I've tried being more careful by not slamming as hard and not starting back as far, but when I do that, it is much less effective and takes longer.

Are there any effective, yet safe ways to hammer nails into walls or pieces of wood, etc.?

score 71 · Accepted Answer · edited Mar 31 '15 at 03:47

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You can use a piece of cardboard to hold the nail. There are some variation in this method:

make a hole and put the nail inside, you can tear the cardboard when the nail is embedded enough
make a cut in the cardboard and put the nail inside, you can use this for several nails without need to tear it
for bigger nails make a stripe of cardboard and wrap it around the nail so that you can hold the two ends of the stripe

And here is something like the first method:

enter image description here

edited Mar 31 '15 at 03:47

michaelpri

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answered Dec 23 '14 at 09:48

vladiz

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Thanks! This seems like a great hack! I wonder if maybe using like construction paper might even be better though since it's easier to tear out, and would probably still provide a steady nail to hammer in. – CRABOLO Dec 23 '14 at 10:43
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You can furthr enhance the cardboard trick and put in multiple nails (far enough apart from each other) so that you can do quite some nailing before reaching for more nails. Especially handy when you are standing on a ladder. – PlasmaHH Dec 23 '14 at 13:43
This would work great for projects that require a specific nail pattern. – apaul Jan 01 '15 at 00:27
one question: is there any survival stack exchange where one can ask survival question with a given situation? – Fennekin Jan 10 '17 at 17:07
@Fennekin I can't see similar SE site, you can check if there is any proposal for a site like this in http://area51.stackexchange.com/ . You can also propose it if not existing. There was "The Great Outdoors, Camping, Survivalism" which was merged with other proposals and now it is "The Great Outdoors". You should check there if you can find what you want – vladiz Jan 11 '17 at 11:21
@Fennekin Now I see in the "The Great Outdoors" there is a tag survival so probably you can search there or ask if you have any question. – vladiz Jan 11 '17 at 11:26

michaelpri · Answer 2 · 2015-05-10T15:31:25.777

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To make sure you don't hurt your fingers, you can use a clothespin to hold the nail in place.

^{Image from Pinterest}

This is very safe and probably more effective than using your fingers.

edited May 10 '15 at 15:31

answered Dec 23 '14 at 05:38

michaelpri

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Nice Q&A style! Though this is a good trick for people who rarely drive nails, if you are driving enough nails that this is a common problem, then learn Apaul's method in the other answer! – dotancohen Dec 23 '14 at 07:24
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So Americans call clothespegs clothespins. That's interesting. – TRiG Dec 23 '14 at 12:22
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@TRiG I might be just me, but this is a clothespeg and this is a clothespin – apaul Dec 23 '14 at 18:25
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@apaul34208 despite the filename of the first link? – Dawood ibn Kareem Dec 24 '14 at 03:05
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@DavidWallace Like I said "it might just be me" – apaul Dec 24 '14 at 03:37
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Who knows? I am not American, and the word "clothespin" is not in my vocabulary. I would say "clothespeg" or just "peg" for the items in both those pictures. – Dawood ibn Kareem Dec 24 '14 at 03:49
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I'm American, and I call the thing in this answer a "clothespin." So does just about everyone I know. ( cc @TRiG ) – Shokhet Dec 31 '14 at 22:11

score 35 · Answer 3 · answered Dec 23 '14 at 05:39

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There's clothespin trick, but that one is almost a meme at this point.

So, how about the traditional approach:

Set the nail.
- Place the tip of the nail where you want to drive your nail and just push it in with your fingers. If the surface is too hard to push it in by hand, grip the hammer higher (near the head) and gently tap the nail till its embedded just enough to make it stand without being held.
Drive the nail.
- Once the nail is standing without being held, hit it hard.

answered Dec 23 '14 at 05:39

apaul

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Not so hacky answer. – kenorb Jan 23 '15 at 19:17
@kenorb http://meta.lifehacks.stackexchange.com/a/1333/32 – apaul Jan 23 '15 at 23:35

score 24 · Answer 4 · answered Dec 23 '14 at 15:17

The trick is not to hold the nail when you are swinging your hammer hard. Hold the nail and gently tap with the hammer just enough so the nail will stick in the wood without having to hold it. After that, you can drive it home.

Another trick is to pre-drill the hole with a tiny drill bit before hammering it in. This should allow you to push the nail into the hole enough with your fingers before nailing it in. It will also help prevent the wood from splitting.

score 19 · Answer 5 · answered Dec 23 '14 at 18:57

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I don't carry clothespins in my toolbox, but I DO have needlenose pliers. Just hold the nail with them until you get it started. Really good with small brads!

answered Dec 23 '14 at 18:57

HalC

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Zaaikort · Answer 6 · 2014-12-23T18:23:39.943

Don't hold the nail with thumb and forefinger! Instead hold it between forefinger and middlefinger, fingernails resting on the wood. Now when you hit your fingers it won't hurt nearly as much.

And like Apaul said there's no need to hit the nail very hard at first. If you do, a half-miss will make the nail shoot away and leave an ugly mark on the wood.

By the way, screws may be treated in the same manner, before finishing the job with a power tool.

score 7 · Answer 7 · answered Dec 25 '14 at 04:28

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Start the nail first, ie a light tap on the nail, enough to at least have the nail support it self in the wood or what ever you are nailing into first. Then move your hand and swing away.

If your having to go to the clothesline to hammer in a nail, then maybe you should put the hammer down and try a different hobby LOL, just kidding

Merry christmas.

answered Dec 25 '14 at 04:28

user3796133

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+1 Why was this down-voted? It's pretty much the right answer. – Peter Wooster Dec 26 '14 at 01:03

score 4 · Answer 8 · answered Dec 26 '14 at 16:24

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Holding the hammer in the very far outer part of the handle will give you more precision (just the opposite of what many beginners do). Also using a heavier hammer will make you able to hit the nail with a lower speed and still push it through the wood -- this also means that if you miss the nail, you can stop the hammer faster (someone good at physics can probably tell you why ... in the meantime, just try it).

answered Dec 26 '14 at 16:24

PetaspeedBeaver

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Also, a bigger hammer head makes it harder to miss the nail (and hit the finger instead). – Paŭlo Ebermann Dec 26 '14 at 23:28

score 1 · Answer 9 · answered Dec 01 '17 at 01:52

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set the nail between two teeth of a pocket comb. place the comb in position, and drive the nail with your hammer. this works well for small sizes of nails.

answered Dec 01 '17 at 01:52

niels nielsen

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How can I avoid hurting my fingers when using a hammer

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