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A hammer is a tool meant to deliver blows to a target, causing it to move or deform. The most common uses are for driving nails, fitting parts, and breaking up objects. Hammers are often designed for a specific purpose, and so their design varies quite a lot. Usual features are a handle and a head, with the balance firmly in the head. The head is composed of a flat, striking surface on one end, and a peen on the other. The peen can be shaped like a claw or wedge to pull nails, or like a ball as in the ball-peen hammer. The hammer is used in many professions, and is one of the most basic tools along with the knife.

Like the knife (and almost all tools), the hammer is also a weapon. The concept of putting a handle on a weight to make it more convenient to use may well have led to the very first tools or weapons ever invented.

The use of a hammer to fix broken machinery is jokingly referred to as percussive maintenance.

Well-known forms include:

• Carpenter's hammer, including framing hammer and claw hammer
• Upholsterer's hammer
• Construction hammer, including sledgehammer
• Ball-peen hammer
• Mallet
• Maul
• Mechanic's hammer, including ball-peen hammer
• Steam hammer
• Stonemason's or club hammer
• Firearm hammer
• Gavel used by judges and presiding authorities in general
• The medieval weapon called the war hammer

A common adage states:

When all you've got is a hammer, everything looks like a nail.

See also: ClubThis article is about clubs referring to a particular organization of people. For other article subjects named club see club (disambiguation). A club (in Greek usually: Mupia in Latin sodalitas consists of an association of people not united together by a, ChiselA chisel is a tool for carving and/or cutting a hard material such as wood or stone or metals. A chisel, typically made of hardened or tempered steel or more rarely, common steel consists of a sharpened end (called the blade) attached to a straight handle, hammer throw (field sport), War hammer