Reply To: What kind of hammer?

The claw and square head likely make it a carpenter’ or joiner’s hammer. Without a touch mark or even knowing what country you are in it’s tough to date. The metal strapping is incorporated to help with a design flaw that hard use of the claw resulted in frequent breakage of the handle.

An early example of the design can be found in the Domini clollection at the Winterthir museum attributed to Nathaniel Domini from 1790-1825. And imported from England. The hammers below date from the late 1700’s to early 1800’ and all show reinforcing methods. ( see attached). Two are carpenter’s hammers, one is an upholsterers hammer, and one is a tack hammer.
In the 1830’s David Mayhole started producing the Adze eye hammer later also produced by Plumb that is still popular.

That doesn’t mean your hammer is old. I have a climbing hammer made by the Italian concern Stubai that was made essentially the same way except it has a pick instead of a claw that I bought new in the 1970’s. I think it is still being produced.