Stanley 57-554 11-1/2-Pound Compo-Cast Sledge Model Soft Face Hammer

I just bought my second Stanley 42 oz. Dead Blow Hammer. The first was bought over 30 years ago. It was great for thirty years and then the plastic cover became sticky and started fracturing.I have owned and used a number of dead blow hammers before I settled on the Stanley. Replaceable face models are great, but you do have to replace the faces every once in a while. Some still mar the surface you are striking, so you need to hold a strike-block with the other hand and I have no third hand to hold the work.So I have 4 primary criteria for a great dead blow hammer:1. Comfortable handle.2. Non marring.3. No bounce at all.4. Very tough and sturdy.And, of course, it needs to be the correct weight for the job. For me, 42 oz. is a great weight, but if I am striking cutting tools like very sharp wood chisels I prefer a hammer with about half that weight. Stanley makes other weights.I am not able to determine what caused the plasticizers in the hammer to fail. This hammer is very popular in my home, having been "borrowed" by wife and children many times. My wife loves to tap paint and varnish cans closed using the hammer. My suspicion is that the paint thinner worked its way onto the plastic cover many times, and it was finally toast. Or it might just be that 30 years of heat, cold, humidity, UV, and chemicals takes a toll on plastic--it does on most forms of it. Plastic covered dashboards in cars don't generally last 30 years without cracking.

Before I bought this I was questioning what was the actual size of this item given the conflicting info in the description vs. product questions. This item came in bright orange which is no problem as I am more interested in the functionality. It measures 15-1/2" long. Some of the info seemed to suggest it was nearly 30" long, but that could only be true if this was a sledge. At 52 ounces it offers some real heft. I had one of these for years until I finally broke it after maybe 25 years of hard use. It is marked as USA. Seems like a very good item.

I missed this tool in my toolbox and the Dead-blow function of this soft face hammer is really nice. Toolshop arround here wanted up to 50$ for this exact same hammer ! By the way, don't go with cheaper version than this one, because you'll regret this later on when other are going to tear up really quickly. (A friend of mine bought one...)If you don't know which size to go, this one is good for most works.

I bought this as a replacement for one of two I bought 25 years ago - same model number but black plastic instead of orange, otherwise identical. I can still use the old one but it's starting to split after many years of abuse. This is my one for home - the one at work is still holding together. I'm a metal fabricator and use it often. The cheap import brand deadblow hammers some guys bring in to our workplace don't last six months, so 25 years and still going strong seems like a good investment and less expensive than a pile of cheapies!

The price (given the Stanley name) is what sold me on this plastic 18-oz dead-blow hammer. I've shopped for such a hammer for a while as a more effective alternative to the cheapo rubber mallet I have. However, the prices (>$20++) kept me with the $2 mallet until I noticed this Stanley for about $12 (as of 6/2015). There are scores of similar inexpensive "no-name" hammers so I jumped at getting a Stanley for that price.I've used the hammer for a couple jobs and it performed as well as I'd hoped. This hammer's blows are much more solid and less "bouncy" than from my rubber mallet. Holding the dead-blow hammer against the surface to be struck and hitting it's back face with a real hammer also works well.The hammer's plastic covering seems a little soft for striking metal that has sharp-ish edges and lips but I image the plastic would last a long time striking flat areas of metal objects. Striking plastic or wood, especially in flat areas, shouldn't cause much wear at all. Someone expecting to use this tool heavily throughout the day striking hard things probably should pay more for a hammer with a much more durable striking surface.I can see this dead-blow hammer is especially useful working with wood furniture, for assembly, disassemby and such.

I've used this thing for several months now, and some of that that use has been for four hours non stop. It works quite well. There are other cheaper mallets out there that may get the job done just fine, but I prefer this one. It has the right combination of weight and hitting power. It's also harder than a lot of the cheap ones, so it doesn't tear up as quickly.

I ordered two of these hammers, and was charged for two, on the 30th of January. I only received one hammer on the 5th of February. Contacted Acme customer service directly via phone and was told that all problems must go through the Amazon messaging platform. This is not a timely, efficient way to handle order problems/issues and I will avoid using Acme in the future.

I used to use this dead blow as a commercial Glazier, I have since moved in to automotive service and this tool continues to take all the abuse I throw it into. Showing very little damage after 2 years.