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ONE'S OWN HAMMER HANDLE
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A hammer is most likely to be the oldest handtool for which evidence exists. According to recent research, the first proven use of simple hammers goes back to approximately 3,3 million years from now.

It is often regarded as a dumb tool which does little more than some simple striking. But in fact it is one of the most dynamic handtools in use; quickly accelerating a hammer head to high speed, over a realtively long distance to (repeatedly) hit a precise target (hopefully not a finger or foot).

In earlier days, metal components, such as a hammer, used to be expensive and were kept in use over long periods of time. Their corressponding wooden handles were quick to wear out and break, they had to be replaced regularily. Often the heammer head was sold without a handle. Therefor most people would shape their own handles and, in doing so, adapt them to their personal needs, their bodies' own shapes.

In contrast to this, nowadays, hammers are sold with prefabricted handles that would fit the average body — accompanied by the problem that *the average body* does not exist. Those hammers are most likely to be replaced by a new hammer once its handle broke.

These hammers with one standardized handle shape do often perform poorly. When swung by a human arm, their hammer heads are less likely to hit a target in the center at an optimal perpendicuar angle. Here you can find an instruction on laying out a hammer handle which is adapted to the dimensions of one's own arm and hand. (These instructions are a simplified version of a more complex layout technique of a body-adapted hammer handle.)