See, I don't consider using tools, or carrying weights, that wreck your body to make you 'more of a man'... I do what I've done for over 25 years, and that includes a lot of hammer swinging at work and backpacking for fun. I'm not in perfect shape, but not bad for my age. I'm just careful where I spend my allotment of physical ability and health, now more than ever...
I'd guess that somewhere around 90+% of the industry professionals in my area of the province are using 13-16 ounce Ti framing hammers nowadays. I'm a little guilty of pulling a number out of thin air with that guess, but I honestly can't recall the last time I have seen a guy using a old school Estwing or Vaughn...
I wish you well on your sunroom project this coming spring, hope it is enjoyable and doesn't lead to a heart attack.
PS. I drive a Dodge Cummins.
I don't blame you. I don't carry 100lb loads anymore, as a matter of fact, I canoe way more than hike these days. However, 40yrs ago, I was a small kid who weighed less than the bales of hay I had to move. I had to work to impress. You kind of get strong when trying to keep up with men. I begged for that job because I needed one and I kept it all summer while others came and went. I spent my life in HEAVY work, BEFORE a lot of the Occuptaional Health and Safety rules came in. You don't cut pulpwood by the cord all summer running a homelite 12" chainsaw and the wood doesnt stack itself. I couldn't afford a Peavey the first year, so it was all done by hard lifting. Companies were not required to provide ANY PPE or safety tools. And pneumatic nailing systems had not come in yet. I bought my first in 1993. I had spent 10yrs doing HARD work by then. Everything nailed my hand. All day.
I spent 3yrs as a labourer to a mason. Two to three masons can use a lot of mortar in a hurry, so I got real good at running full wheelbarrows all over the place on planks. Also, hauling as many blocks as I could trying to keep up. They only got ahead of me once, and they admitted afterwards that they had simply been dumping mortar down inside the blocks then yelling for more to see how much they could push me.
By the time I was building at 18 (I had my first child at 17, so school suddenly went away), I could carry 2 bundles of shingles on my shoulder up a ladder. A few years later, I had my own company, I once worked both of my labourers into dropping on one particular roofing job. We did not supply the shingles but had contracted the job. The shingles were on the ground and a local supplier was hired to put them up on the roof. They were architectural ashphalt shingles made to look, after installation, like old cedar barn shingles, including the ripples and lifted edges (basically a two layer shingle). They were 120 lbs per. Of course, the HIAB was late (in the end 4 hours late).
One labourer could not even pick up a bundle and walk, let alone get up an 18' ladder. My older labourer carried 5 bundles up one at a time until he quit. I made 18 trips up the ladder with a bundle of shingles on my shoulder, before my knees were too weak to continue. That 23 bundles was enough to get work in until the HIAB got there to put them up.
Usually, by the time I was 30, what I grabbed, moved. I once worked with a guy who was 6'5" and weighed about 320lbs. Joking around, he kind of leaned over while we were walking, and I didn't move. After a couple of steps I got my balance, and I kind of shrugged him off. And he just stopped an looked at me. He said that no one had ever done that before.
And, then, once I joined the Infantry, well, we never lost many fights. And I wasn't the biggest guy there at only 6'2" and 220lbs. But not many in my unit messed with me.
It is much nicer today with rules that force employers to have limits on what they can make you lift, work at, or how long. But, back in the day...no such thing. You got an education, or you got hard. You spent 4 hours at a time on a roof and didn't come down to be swapped out. Sometimes you even ate up there. You weren't roped on.
My education came from reading, watching, and distance learning then doing. I have a gift of being able to read something and then do it. Pissed off more than one roommate while I have been in the military. I slept while they stayed up struggling with, to me, easy stuff. I helped out, but some people just can't get what they need from a book.
And while I still want to work 18-20 hours a day, I know it isn't possible. I just dont have the stamina, I can't carry the weight, and I simply can't keep up, but, I have made adjustments. Equipment replaced hand labour. Come-alongs and jacks replace picking up walls by hand. Gloves are worn. Safety glasses now exist on my face, etc. There won't be a heart attack, and probably not a 30oz hammer, but there is still work that will be accomplished.
