French Type Claw Hammer (700g)

Name: French Type Claw Hammer (700g)
Brand: Harden
SKU: 590222

Item No. 590222

Price on request

The French pattern claw hammer is a different shape from the familiar one, and the difference is in the claw. Where a standard claw curves round in a pronounced arc, the French type carries a straighter, more slender claw set at a shallower angle. That geometry does two things: it slides into a tighter gap to get under a nail head that is nearly flush, and it works better as a prising and separating tool — getting between two boards, lifting a batten, opening a crate — where a deeply curved claw simply will not enter.

It is a pattern that has been popular with carpenters and formwork joiners for a long time for exactly that reason. Formwork in particular is a job of putting timber together with nails and then taking it apart again intact, and a claw that gets under a flush nail without first destroying the surrounding timber saves both the board and the time.

At 700 grams this is a substantial hammer, sitting above the common 16 and 20 ounce weights, so it drives nails in fewer blows and has the mass behind it for heavier framing and formwork.

The head is magnetic, which holds a nail for one-handed starting. That is worth more than it sounds anywhere you cannot spare a second hand — on a ladder, overhead on a ceiling or soffit, or reaching into a corner — and it removes the moment of pinching a nail between finger and thumb and hoping, which is how people hit their own fingers.

The head is forged fine grain steel, hardened to over HRC 48. That is a deliberately moderate figure and it is there for safety. Harder faces become brittle, and brittle faces chip rather than dent, particularly when they clip a hardened nail or land at an angle. Fragments off a hammer face travel fast enough to blind, and it is one of the most common serious injuries on a building site. Just above 48 keeps the face flat and unmushroomed through years of work while remaining tough enough to deform instead of fracturing. Forging matters equally on this pattern, since a slender claw takes real levering loads and needs its grain running around the shape rather than across it.

The handle is a two-colour fibreglass shaft with a moulded cushion grip — stable in any humidity, rot-proof, absorbing a share of the shock, and holding grip in a wet hand.

The buyers are carpenters and formwork joiners, building and construction trades, shuttering and falsework crews, shopfitters and installers, and hardware dealers supplying builders.

Use a block under the claw when pulling, both for leverage and to spare the timber. Check the shaft below the head for overstrike damage. And wear eye protection. Ask on WhatsApp for a price.