Hammers with shortened shafts? Very useful in my humble opinion. First Hammer I bought was my 1lb ball pein. It's a Bedford, are they still in business? After many years of happily persuading things to comply with it I had to shorten it's shaft for one particular job and then found how useful it is to have one with a short shaft. I too have a 2 lb ball pein with a quite long shaft, as you say not much tries to argue with it!
The 2 lb jobbie was quite a find. It's actually a Gilpin - Ooooow, bow down - and has a "baby" brother at half a pound for more "genteel" applications of force. I got them as a pair for not very much at the auto jumble which used to be held in Portobello town hall. On another occasion, at the same venue, I picked up a wee square headed one of approx 1 lb weight which had also had it's handle shortened. Don't think anyone wanted it because of the shortened handle and although the square head confers no great advantage I do find the wedge end useful on occasion.
The other one worth a particular mention is my leather faced hammer. It's probably around 2 lbs and is wonderful for "persuading" brake drums, discs etc to shift without chipping bits off them. I didn't get such a bargain on it but it was almost as good as new when I bought it.
Just to save your imagination having to work overtime here they are:
I've sometimes wondered whether to buy another 1 lb with a "proper" handle but I never have and now realize I get on just fine with what I've got. You can also see, from the state of the handles, that the 2 and 1/2 lb "brothers" don't see anything like as much action as the other 3.
