Ernest Estwing founded his company in 1923 on the one-piece metal design of his hammer. The goal was to making striking tools that didn’t have separate heads, but his costs required him to sell his hammers at a dollar more than the average hammer – a pretty big problem when you realize that the cost of the normal hammer back in 1923 was just one dollar. But customers were willing to pay double the price for Estwing’s design, and the company grew. It moved from his basement into a plant and along with that, the hiring of employees… and then the Great Depression hit. As Estwing’s Facebook page puts it regarding this time in the company’s history, “Naturally, the Depression slowed the growth of the company, but no married Estwing employees had to join the list of unemployed. This remains a point of pride for Estwing Mfg. Company to this day.”
Since then the company has grown, the leather handle evolved into a nylon handle, and then a new recipe of grip material that’s designed to reduce vibration. But for you traditionalists out there, the company still makes many of their Made in the USA line of hammers with the option of a leather handle as well.
https://www.estwing.com/collections/nail-hammers/products/claw-hammer-1