Your favorite wall hammer for prying out beaks

I have a bulky A.F. Omega Pacific hammer I bought in Yosemite when I first started walling. It's super heavy, which is ok for drilling, but the pick is a little big for prying out beaks. I've tried my friend's Dammer, with a special pick for removing beaks. Obviously cottage industry items like that are sick. Any one have experience with other hammers that are particularly good at prying out beaks? That Petzl Bongo hammer looks pretty good. Anyone use one of those?

You don't pry out beaks with the hammer pick. Either funk them by their clip in loop or hammer them up via the base or the head then back down until they loosen enough to pull out with your fingers. You know, like a piton. If you absolutely feel you have to pry out a beak, instead, put an angle or an arrow between the beak and the wall and use that to lever out the beak.

Also, you don't need to set a beak all the way in the crack for it to work. Tap in beaks and they'll tap out. Hammer in beaks and you'll need to hammer them out. 

“Just Tap it In”

-Chubbs Peterson 

Also dammerr is spelled with two "r"s

Additionally, the pick on a dammerr isn't made to pry out beaks (and they have broken in the wild from exactly that) Daniel doesn't make dammerrs for prying out pitons, his hammers are engineered specifically to be the best for for hand drilling (though they work great for pitons as well if your technique is good) 

Kristoffer Wickstrom wrote: http://www.dammerr.com/Zephyr.html

That's what I'm talking about! I believe Brandon's has a fiberglass shaft so that it won't break when prying beaks. Best hammer I've used on a wall by far. I've even tried getting high hook placements with the magnet on the side (using the hammer as a mini cheat stick of sorts).

The top hammer has been prying beaks and peckers in excess of 10 years of active service, only failure of the hammer was a broken handle when  I dropped it halfway up roulette last year. I believe the most critical aspect to prying beaks is the top arc of the hammer *think a claw hammer*. The second is a complete and narrow  pick to anvil tapper that allows for prying the beak in a second orientation (laying the pick and anvil flat on the rock and sliding it under the beak shaft and lifting the handle for leverage) I feel the Dammerr doesn’t excell in this axis. The thin pick is also nice for cleaning cracks just like you would with an ice tool on alpine climbs.

The Omega Pacific hammer could be modified to work well, as it already has an outstanding top arc.
   

Kristoffer, is this hammer just a modified hatchet?  I like the design and haven’t seen one like it before.  

It started its life as a roofers hatchet. If I made it again I would not put funkness hole in the pick.

Really great work.  I’m going to make one this weekend now for sure.  Did you mill out the relief in top of the head for the handle retention straps, or forge them in?  They look well fitted

And instead of having the funkness hole you’d rather simply have the profile of the old chouinard crag hammer, but with a little more sweep to the pick than the chouinard?  Is that because you just don’t do much funking on pitons?  I may still drift in a funkness hole as I do some bolting and once in a blue moon I’ll get a 5 piece bolt that won’t tighten up or some reason and funking a little on the hanger will usually get the cone to seat and the bolt will then tighten. Rare occurrence though so it may not be worth it.  

Sorry to derail the thread with this tangent 

The old bigwall.com forum had a posting detailing the hack.

I did not have a milling machine at the time, so those keeper tab recesses were made with a file.

I chose the roofing hatchet as the blank because It’s a light weight hammer with all the heat treatments on the anvil already professionally done, and it had plenty of material for me to remove to get the overall profile I wanted. Personally I like the feel of a lighter hammer with a longer handle (California framing style) vs the standard short and heavy, but that boils down to nothing more than preference.

Why no funkness hole? It’s just a technique that does not resonate with me. In the rare event of doing it (like the bolting situation you describe) a sling hitched below the hammer head is fine for my needs. My philosophy dictates that 18” of 1/4 aircraft cable, two copper ferrules and two dedicated oval carabiners is weight I can do without.  But I understand that some enjoy a good funkness and that’s fine and dandy.

I found the post but sadly it looks like all the photos are gone.  If you still have them handy somewhere and care to share them with me I’d love to see them.  

Quinn Hatfield wrote: “Just Tap it In”

-Chubbs Peterson 

Ease it on someone else!

Fail Falling wrote: Daniel doesn't make dammerrs for prying out pitons, his hammers are engineered specifically to be the best for for hand drilling (though they work great for pitons as well if your technique is good) 

Huh, never would have thought there was much of a difference. What hammers are made that are better for pitons? Or are most hammers more generic and the dammerrs are just a better show of craftsmanship?

Thanks for the advice Kristoffer! With minimal fuss, I was able to mod my new Petzl Hammer to fit my beak prying needs.

After about 30 minutes of filing by hand (a grinder would be easier obviously), I narrowed the pick on my Petzl Bongo. I could still take a little more metal off of it, but it served its purpose for that week, which was a push of Dihedral Wall on El Cap. We only brought down to a medium BD beak, which the pic on my modded Bongo fit nicely. It is still a little bit wide for small Moses Beaks, but with 10 minutes of filing, I'm sure it would be right where I need it to be.

Nol H wrote:

Huh, never would have thought there was much of a difference. What hammers are made that are better for pitons? Or are most hammers more generic and the dammerrs are just a better show of craftsmanship?

Depends upon the placement for pitons. Angles and arrows respond differently to head weight than heads and beaks will, the strength of the climber should be a consideration as well in terms of usability. The style of pick will play better with some aspects of nailing and worse with others. The tang in the handle plays into the hammer efficiency and effectiveness as well, as does the type of wood itself. Even with drilling, carbide tips drills will do better with lighter hammer hits while chisel tip bits do better with heavier hammers.

in short. Idk. 

Matthew Bernstein wrote:

but it served its purpose for that week, which was a push of Dihedral Wall on El Cap.

Did you do that route with Brandon?

Fail Falling wrote:

Did you do that route with Brandon?

Hi Kevin. Brandon and I climbed it about 2 weeks ago during a day of relatively clean air. Definitely a route worthy of more traffic (except for maybe the original finish   )

Matthew Bernstein wrote:

Hi Kevin. Brandon and I climbed it about 2 weeks ago during a day of relatively clean air. Definitely a route worthy of more traffic (except for maybe the original finish   )

Yeah he mentioned he was going for it when I was up in the same area. Kept looking but never saw you guys

You’re going to be leaving a lot of beaks if you are counting on your hammer to pry them out.

Skot and I have a “Beak Bar” up here on Tempest right now and it is simply the ticket!

I’ll post a photo tomorrow.

Hi Mark! I've had quite a few beaky adventures in the park and can't recall leaving any beaks due to the method i've used. That being said, you've piqued my curiosity and am stoked to see your beak bar! Always good to see how someone does something a little different, and if it makes it even easier for me to remove beaks, i'd be stoked to give your method a try.

I hope you and Skot are having a great adventure up on Tempest.