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Estwing has been touting a new titanium hammer on social media, positioning the company to take on Stiletto and Martinez.
Estwing, as you might know, specializes in steel nail and framing hammers.
According to their posting, the new titanium hammers will be launching later this year.
A reader (thank you ITCD!) wrote in with the tip:
I’m sure it might be on your radar already, but Estwing has been showing off a new titanium hammer.
In the wake of their posting, a couple folks who actually received one to trial and give feedback on cropped up on Reddit to talk about them, though at least one of the posts had since been deleted (I’m assuming it wasn’t prime time for them to go public with their commentary yet), and they seemed to like it.
This is the first I’ve heard of Estwing coming out with a titanium hammer.
Estwing came out with a titanium competitor in 2016, the AL-PRO, which “is made from forged aircraft aluminum alloy, which is lighter than titanium.” The AL-PRO is more akin to a dead blow hammer, with “vibration dampening shot built into the head giving every blow maximum force.”
Before that, Estwing launched “high velocity” hammers with thin handles and carved-out heads to save weight.
We know nothing about the new Estwing titanium hammers, other than what we can see in the sole product image.
It has Estwing’s iconic blue handle grip, a contoured upper handle with bold branding, and what looks to be a replaceable strike face.
With just this single social media teaser image, we can’t tell if the new hammer has a side nail puller or magnetic nail starter, features that are standard on both Martinez and Stiletto Ti hammers.
Although there’s a very small number of tool brands offering titanium-handled hammers, competition is fierce and mature.
Martinez has built a fully customizable solution, with interchangeable handle grips, shafts, and different hammer heads, giving users the ability to tailor a hammer to their needs and tastes.
Stiletto’s latest TiBone offerings allow much of the same, with replaceable handle grips, strike faces, and mallet caps.
Stiletto’s new line has 3 sizes of Ti-handled hammers with multiple strike face options.
Martinez has 2 handle sizes, a multiple of handle grip colors and styles, different handle color finishes, and 4 head weights with different styles (e.g. milled and smooth), claw shapes, and finishes.
Shown here is a Martinez M4 short handle hammer with a polished sledge head, pink-finished shaft, and translucent handle grip with light blue insert.
Estwing’s first titanium hammers are going to face fierce and well-developed competition.
Estwing hasn’t innovated much in recent years; when’s the last time Estwing launched a new product that wasn’t developed or marketed by OEM partners?
The company launched products under licensing agreements, such as screwdrivers, utility knives, tape measures, and air compressors.
It’s interesting and even exciting to see Estwing enter the Ti hammer market. They’re going to need a good hammer and a great plan to compete with Hultafors-owned Martinez Tools and Milwaukee-owned Stiletto.
