Sledgehammer rules?

[Verjigorm]

Originally Posted by Anthony

That's not anything specific to a sledgehammer. In any case, realistic sledgehammers seem to have an extremely wide range of weights (2-20 lb heads...), but the maul (at 12 lb) is in the range of heavy sledgehammers.

Honestly, most sledges are hard to use accurately. i swing a lot of hammers for a living, and it's amazing what a little bit of weight will do. I recently "downgraded" from my old 28oz framing hammer to a 22oz hammer, and I'll be honest: I drive nails better with the lighter hammer. It's just easier to control. But when you absolutely need to shift something, the 28oz works wonders.

But I just don't think someone can realistically use a sledgehammer very effectively as a "pure" hammer, i.e. using nothing but the two-handed axe/mace skill unless they were ridiculously strong. The best I can think of is you end up using the haft a LOT to jab and attack with, and set up the big hammer strokes.

[evileeyore]

Originally Posted by Verjigorm

But I just don't think someone can realistically use a sledgehammer very effectively as a "pure" hammer, i.e. using nothing but the two-handed axe/mace skill unless they were ridiculously strong.

In my hayday I could, and I wasn't "ridiculously" strong (I was probably in the ST 13-14 range though).

[Verjigorm]

Originally Posted by evileeyore

In my hayday I could, and I wasn't "ridiculously" strong (I was probably in the ST 13-14 range though).

Not to sound skeptical, but just where in the heck were you playing whackamole with a sledgehammer? Deets man, this sounds far too interesting.

[evileeyore]

Originally Posted by Verjigorm

Not to sound skeptical, but just where in the heck were you playing whackamole with a sledgehammer? Deets man, this sounds far too interesting.

Spent a couple of weeks breaking sidewalks at an apartment complex I did maintenance at (we had to relay pipe under them). After a few days I could put the hammer head where I pleased into the concrete and had developed a decent one hit every couple of seconds rhythm (smash the sidewalk, take a sidestep while readying it, smash the sidewalk, rinse repeat for eight hours).

In fact of the team of us (four guys), I was the only one still swinging by the end of day one (though I'd slowed my rhythm considerably), and the other guys were all being lazy and just hauling stone and digging up the pipe. And as I hated digging (truly back breaking work), they were perfectly happy to let me smash sidewalks all day... for two more weeks. Though each morning it was usually all of us smashing walks for like an hour until enough was done that they could just catch up with me by the end of the day - and I quite an hour early and just sat about watching them work!

It was fun... ish. About the same as splitting logs with a six pound axe, which I did for years in Colorado as a kid.

The 'skill' carried over when we had to demo a few apartments (gut and remodel) and they just let me 'go crazy' smashing the (interior) wall beams out with the sledge. Sometimes breaking stuff is just pure fun.

[Anthony]

Originally Posted by Hellboy

I imagine swinging a sledge at a head height target might be a different beast than swinging it at a ground target. Could techniques specialize based on elevation?

The most relevant skill to that is actually forced entry.