After banging my hands a few times with a regular hammer and chisel I bought this one to help pry out a brick wall and brick planter. It worked great. It's a powerful chisel and the guards saved my hands. Even after several weeks of constant hammering, the guard remains in excellent shape. The coating is still there, the metal does not show through. Now I scrape the grout off the bricks to recycle and this chisel was a huge time saver. For the price, the purchase is absolutely justified.