Well, not so much the forum, but it is an interesting way to start this out.
After a lot of thought (ouch, that hurts a bit) I finally narrowed down when I purchased my dead blow hammer. It was about 3 days after I got back from Earl Cureton's place when I purchased his business. Considering it was kind of on the way, I detoured to Friendship for the Spring Shoot, then hit the road home. After getting unpacked and organized., I decided it was time to go to Coeur d'Alene Power Tool and purchase a few necessary tools to perform my newly acquired skills, making powder horns in the style of Earl Cureton. One of the tools necessary was a good dead blow hammer to set the drive spur into the maple block so I could lathe turn the baseplug. (Note: If you are not using a dead blow hammer, change up your game and get one.) This was a medium sized hammer and it was a cross between red and orange when new. I affectionately called it "Big Red".
Well, that old hammer was responsible for driving the drive spur into I don't know how many thousand maple base plugs. Lots and lots, anyway.
So, I used that hammer for that and a myriad of other tasks for about 30 years plus weeks - until day before yesterday. I was using it to set some bricks in a flower bed I was building and it just flat gave up the ghost. Well, I figure I got my money's worth out of that old hammer, but I sure was sorry to see it die. I think I am going to put it in the flower bed somehow. It should look nice, and be a good topic of conversation to boot.
In case you are wondering what the inside of a dead blow hammer looks like - here it is!!!
John (Bigsmoke)