Old customer showed me a trick I still use 15 years later

Had a guy in his 80s hire me to fix a deck in Portland back in 2009, and he watched me struggle with a wonky joist hanger for 5 minutes before speaking up. He just said "son, you're fighting the nail instead of the wood" and showed me how to angle the hammer swing so the nail went in smooth every time. Anybody else got a lesson from an older builder that stuck with them way longer than they expected?

2 comments

2 Comments

milar4617d ago

Wait, is that actually a thing? I used to think older guys just had slower ways of doing things, but honestly that hammer angle trick totally changed how I approach any kind of nailing now.

sage_morgan7517d ago

yeah the hammer angle thing is legit. my old man showed me that years ago and i thought he was just being picky. but once you get it right it saves so much time on missed hits and bent nails.