Larwyn wrote:But for convincing a steel frame member to move into square or flat or to move a framing member that 1/64th of an inch nothing can beat a few pounds of steel on a hickory handle......
Having spent my early working life in shipyards, I was trained to think that "a few pounds of steel on a hickory handle" would be ideal for dressmaking, flower arranging and similar projects.
For more serious work, 'many pounds of steel' is more useful and I used to think that a 14lb hammer was small and a 28lb hammer was big. Then I worked in a yard that had some 56lb hammers - you had to swing them between your legs, as if you were a young lady playing croquet! They were called 'Mondays' though no-one could tell me why - my assumption that they enabled you "to knock things into next week" could not be confirmed.
Andrew