Question about a surprising number of hammer strikes

I was working on a large decorative gate hinge yesterday, and I decided to count my hammer blows on one of the scrolls. I hit 1,247 strikes before I was happy with the shape. I've been at this for over twenty years, but I'd never actually counted before. It made me think about how much of our work is in the repetition. Has anyone else ever tracked something like this on a project?

2 comments

2 Comments

henry_webb688d agoMost Upvoted

Man, that number is wild. It makes total sense though. I bet if you counted the taps on a single rivet or the passes with a file on a clean-up job, you'd get a similar shock. We just put our heads down and do the work, and the sheer volume of it all gets lost in the focus. Makes you respect the craft on a whole different level.

adam_anderson68d ago

Right? @henry_webb68, now I'm scared to even think about how many times I've swung a hammer. My whole life is just tiny, repeated motions!