My hammer arrived with a noticeable dent on the handle which didn't show up in the final shipping step as the box was completely intact (1/8 inch deep and 3 inches). 16 inches wide x 1 inch long). For the first few inches below the head, the grip is quite rough, like there's no finish on it --- hard to tell, but definitely not by much --- and sure it wasn't smoothed out there to begin with. The handle appears to be epoxy filled, with some sort of round metal insert at the top that probablyβ¦