Picked a basic rock hammer over the fancy pick for my first field trip

Everyone in my group at the Grand Canyon said to get a geological pick for better splitting, but I went with a simple Estwing hammer instead (it just felt right in my hand). I ended up being way more careful with my samples and didn't break a single one, while two people snapped their finds trying to use the pick's point. Is the pick really the better tool for a beginner, or is the basic hammer underrated?

3 comments

3 Comments

the_gavin2mo ago

Remember my buddy chipping his own tooth?

grant.richard1mo agoMost Upvoted

Did you ever see the guy who tried to split a brick with a hammer and ended up with a chunk of it in his forehead? I swear, every time I look at a splitter I think about that. My own personal rock-splitting disaster was trying to use a cold chisel on a piece of granite for a garden border. Ended up with a chip in my thumb instead of the rock. So your buddy's tooth story hits close to home, but my version is way less cool.

the_jason2mo ago

What kind of rocks were you trying to split? A pick might be overkill for softer stuff.