Weatherlawyer wrote:
There are 3 things to watch out for with cheap hammers besides the
discomfort factor (which can run the gamut) The rubber coming loose
from the handle, the handle breaking and the iron in the head being
soft.

The latter is OK for very occasional use. The head will mushroom with
a lot of use and become dangerous and the claw (if it has one) will
not last long enough for pulling out small nails. Using pins with such
hammers is a real, major, absolute and irredeemable pain and you will
waste loads of nails 2 to 3 inches long.

IOW: A decent hammer can be a real bargain in comparison. A decent
hammer will have really hard steel so that even after years of use
there will be almost no dents or pits in the face.

Tiny little dents and pits will tend to turn the nails and bend them.

Bending a nail with an hammer is not down to pits in the face of the head
its down to how you swing the hammer along with the right place of the grip
of the hammer.

My hammer has more pits than Wales, but i can drive a 3" nail home with two
blows.

--
Sir Benjamin Middlethwaite