If a sledgehammer is a "broad sword" then this little beauty is a "scalpel". I'm demolishing a small building, which requires more than just a hammer, but not a sledgehammer. This three-pound beast is the perfect middle ground for that problem. It has enough weight to split boards or drywall, but not too much if you take out the target by scattering wood and/or nails everywhere. Don't even make me blow up the drywall... Speaking of drywall, it punches a nice hole without splitting the drywall into pieces so you can use a saw and cut out. Or, if you're like me, I'll just bang the wall with a hammer instead of using a saw. Another good thing about this hammer is how it's made. It has a wooden handle thick enough to provide a secure grip. It's also long enough to be balanced for a proper swing and not hurt your arm or shoulder while swinging. Rocking an unbalanced heavy object is a good way to snap your shoulder, but if you use it correctly, you won't have this problem. Out of the box, this thing is just great. It's polished to a mirror finish and the wooden handle just begs you to reach out and summon it like Thor. I almost didn't want to use it because it looked so great. But just as the Ferrari was built to rumble across tarmac, this hammer was built to destroy. If you're looking for a hammer to build something with, this might not be for you. No nails are hammered, but hammered out of wood. As an added bonus when you combine it with a tie rod splitter (the tool for your car) it makes a great wedge/splitter tool. To demolish part of the building I need to keep the fence around it and reuse as much wood as possible. I can use a hammer and a drawbar splitter to pry old boards off a broken fence without breaking them. An ordinary hammer does not have enough weight, and a sledgehammer will destroy it. I was able to split 20 boards with this hammer and only lose one. Do yourself and your tool collection a favor and grab this hammer.