archwind

One chilly morning 30 years ago, I was stripping concrete forms by using a hammer head hatchet & hitting the hammer end with a big ball peen hammer. First good whack of the day (you know - tap, tap to set it and then whack) the mallet part of the hatchet flew apart & 'lost' about 1/3 of it's hammer face; enough metal to make maybe 23¢ in change. Dunno where it all went but a peanut-half sized chunk went deep into my hand / thumb joint and had to be removed by a doctor.

Explode with lethal force? To be fair, it didn't truly explode but I'd say that had that chunk hit someone in just the right spot it certainly could have been lethal. I still work in the contracting / woodworking biz and I never, ever hit hammers together.