I'm a mechanic at a dealership and do a lot of suspension work and I really needed a brass hammer to knock out components without risk of damaging threads or breaking something with a steel hammer. Ordered 6 months ago and use it almost every day. The face piece on mine is definitely cracked, but not chipped or deformed, just a slight fungus around the edges, which is to be expected when hammering steel with brass, but that doesn't affect function in any way. The handle and grip are still firm,