How to NOT bang your thumb with a hammer!

I make a lot of things with wood, fairy doors, the odd bit of craft storage here and there. I'm not saying it's expert standard, but it does the job.

Now if like me, you just can't help banging your thumbs and fingers when hammering a nail, i thought i'd show you a neat little tip that will help. It also stops you having to get your kids to hold the nail in place instead! Just kidding :)

First, get a thin piece of dowelling. This can be as long as you want it, but short enough to be controllable from the other end where you hold it. I used a piece about the length of a pencil, in fact it was the other end of one of my home made chalking tools.....hence the arty design on it! :)

Now split the end. You can do this by carefully doing it with a craft knife, or just poke a pokey tool into it near the top, it will split nicely. The split only has to be about an inch long.



Now you have something to hold your nail steady and away from your fingers when you hammer it. Like so......



Well for an invention as cool as this, i felt i had to follow in Maddy's footsteps and do a video showing it in action. Unfortunately there is no sound on it as the design people at Canon thought it would be great to make a video facility on their Powershot A420 without a microphone! (Who on earth was responsible for that bit of genius?!!!) I take videos for momento reasons......if i wanted to see my kids in silent pictures i'd have married Charlie Chaplin!

So here it is.....for the purpose of this video, i will call my nail holder.....The Grabber! ( Is there any limit to my imagination!!!) :)



The great thing about the "split" design feature, is that it can open up and grab any size nail to a point. If you just bore a single hole through it, you have no scope to use larger or smaller nails as they will either split the tool anyway, or fall through it.

This is also a great gadget for kids who enjoying helping dad or mum in the shed. My kids love hammering nails into bits of wood, but do get a bit frustrated when they keep banging their little fingers.