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It's a new year!   ...and that had me thinking lately about the past.     I was a Transit Enforcement Officer with L.A. COUNTY METRO back in the day.  I was also one of only three defensive tactics instructors there.     Fortunately, I was blessed with a great training Sergeant (then Lieutenant, and now "Chief" Ortiz is the bald guy in the middle) and a damn good patrol partner (Officer Barraza is on the big guy on the left).   I've always been the type of guy to have several "irons in the fire" at the same time.  I'm a...

So, I was on reddit talking about my favorite hammer and someone asked how I attached the new handle.   I figured I might as well show some pics of it. It's basically a wedged mortise and tenon.  I didn't even use glue.  It hasn't budged even though I wail on stuff with it on a regular basis. 

Here's the original handle for comparison.   

This is a little 4 ounce hammer that I bought for $1.50 at my local Daiso.  Daiso is like a Japanese dollar store where everything is a buck fifty.  I changed out the dinky little handle for a fat piece of iron bamboo.   It now hits like a 16 ounce carpenter's hammer with a fraction of the effort.  I learned that just changing the handle has a dramatic effect on performance.