| how does a hammer
mean? |
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| carl gillen | |||||||||
| A hammer can mean many things. It can be many things. The word itself can function as a verb, noun, or adjective, and it has passed through several epochs of meaning. From the Oxford English Dictionary: | |||||||||
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| Common Teutonic: OE. hamor, -er, hmer = OS. hamur (MDu., Du. hamer), OHG. hamar (Ger. hammer), ON. hamarr. The Norse sense crag, and possible relationship to Slav. kamy, Russ. kameni stone, have suggested that the word originally meant stone weapon. | |||||||||
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These layers of meaning are firmly embedded in the idea of a hammer, and more continue to be added both in the word and in the various objects which we call hammers. So what are some of these meanings? Which depend upon social associations of hammers, and which emerge through the materiality of a hammer? Is a hammer a mere tool? A person? The stuff of which legends are made? A part of a person? Are they meant to foster and save bodies? Or destroy them? Does a hammer express irrational fear? Or perfectly rational fear? Is a hammer a joke? Does it resolve disputes? The common thread in all of these images is the notion of a hammer as a vehicle for agency. They convey skill, power, authority, purpose, and will in a way we all recognize. Hammers build, break, form, preserve, and finalize as an extension of the body. Indeed, artists and craftspeople often refer to their tools as being incorporated and naturalized to the extent that the tool becomes part of the person wielding it. According to Tim Ingold in The Perception of the Environment (2000), tools extend the capacity of an agent to operate within a given environment. The tool as a manipulated object enhances the effect of the agent, and the tool as a material object pushes back against the somatic system in which it is used. The use of a tool by a body requires that the body accept feedback and resistance from the tool. In the case of a hammer, its shape, weight, faces, and balance force the body to move in certain ways. The materiality of the hammer introduces a system of somatic reinforcement, lest the work be spoiled or the body suffer damage: the arm must swing. The fingers must grip a certain way. The eyes must focus upon the work. This relationship of the social and the material brings me to one particular hammer and to one particular man.The hammer: The man: Norm Wendell The man with the hammer: Norm is 76 years old. He has been blacksmithing since he could raise a hammer (his grandfather taught him). When he was sixteen, he joined the circus. He worked in the Pennsylvania oil fields in the 1950s. He is a patternmaker, die maker, woodworker, machinist, welder, cutler, metal caster, and gunsmith. He can retro-engineer almost any metallic object. Dozens of metalworkers seek him out when they have a question. But he can barely read. Norm is recognized as an expert, and he is one of my best friends. As such, any of his creations bear a special significance for me, not only as a reminder of our friendship, but also as a relic and vector of his unique agency. Norm made the hammer in the pictures above. It is stamped with both of his touch marks: “IM” for “Iron Mountain” and “NW” for his initials. These marks serve as proof of authenticity and as a sign of his personal investment of skill and knowledge in the object. I suppose this makes the hammer a fetishized object for me, but only insofar as its meaning is concerned. Its function is not affected by the fetishization, but the skill invested in the object determines its functionality. The form, balance, and weight of the hammer were all carefully controlled. Norm painstakingly shaped and polished the hammer faces for different tasks. He drifted the handle hole straight. He hardened and tempered the hammer for durability. He shaped and wedged the handle for a tight fit. This hammer’s meaning and materiality are interwoven for me, but its materiality will likely have more duration. One need not have known Norm in order to appreciate this hammer, and anyone may imbue other layers of meaning upon it. |
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