MSR

Stake Hammer

Lightweight hammer for the job!

Good, light weight hammer for tent stakes. Good size striking head so you won’t be missing the stake head. I wish that it came with a cover for the head of the hammer as the claw portion is very sharp and it could tear my gear bag. For now, I’m wrapping the hammer with a rag to protect my bag.

It stakes good

I bought mine on a deep sale. That’s the only time I’d recommend it.

Works great

Great tool. Has enough weight to drive stakes well but it is light enough to backpack with it. The claw is also the perfect size for pulling my stakes out of the ground.

Great!

Familiarity:

I've put it through the wringer

Great for any kind of trip, no only for stakes but I have use it to open coconuts, hitting a wood wedge instead of hitting a knife when I dont want to carry and axe in backpacking down river or in the beach. Used it for moving logs or bamboo and still holding up.

Great hammer, just wish it had a cover

The claw part is quite sharp, and exposed. The hammer should have a cover that slips over the claw. Otherwise great.

Lightweight and Fun

I previously scoffed at the idea of getting this hammer, assuming I could always just find a rock. It turns out, there's a hand-sized rock shortage on a lot of trails and at many campsites, and a typical toolkit hammer isn't going to work on your stakes. A hatchet was also an interesting idea, but the prospect of accidentally cutting my fingers off was a bit off-putting (and the weight distribution of the hatchet really didn't facilitate hammering). In terms of hammering, this hammer does it well: it's light, the weight distribution is right, and it drives stakes into solid ground *very* well. The prongs on the back are perfect for pulling out stakes (which the cord on the bottom could also be used for if your stakes don't have cords), and would make for a great trowel. Also, you could probably use it as a meat tenderizer if you really wanted to, but that's probably unsanitary.

Get Hammered!!

Heavy duty hammering for tough ground! Love this Hammer and use it a bunch!!

Awesome Stake Hammer AND....

Yes it is light weight! Drives and Pulls stakes, Check! Could be used in Self Defense if ever needed (hopefully not)! AND....it is the fastest Cat Hole Digger of All TIME! If you have ever tried to dig a Cat Hole in hard ground with that ultralight aluminum thing, you know what I mean. Flip that hammer and use those claws to dig a cat hole to speck ( 6" deep and as big as you feel necessary) in less than 30 seconds! The MSR Tent Stake Hammer is part of my base weight for good!!

The Most Elegant of Hammers

Familiarity:

I've put it through the wringer

I bought this hammer on a whim, but also because it looks like a hammer Apple would make if they did make hammers. It does have a beauty to it. The hammer though does what it needs to do. It will hammer in tent stakes. I use MSR Groundhogs and it does the job on those. It also can pull them out too, like, you know, A HAMMER. And now we come to my two complaints about it. One is justifying its existence in your backpack. Sure, a rock isn't awesome to use for getting tent stakes in, but it also isn't something you have to carry with you in your backpack that weighs over half a pound and takes up space. The other complaint I have is long term durability. The handle is hollow and the head is bound to it by a single pin. It feels very sturdy, but I don't know how long that pin is going to hold for. I wouldn't say you have to have this hammer, and it does feel frivolous to me, but it's the lightest and most elegant hammer I've ever owned, and let me tell you, there was stiff competition for that honor. If you're going for ultralight, you're not on this product page, even considering this thing, but if you want some convivence with getting your tent stakes in and out with some minor weight and volume cost, you could do worse than this hammer.

Perfect design for the job.

Sea kayaking isn't so weight restricted as climbing or backpacking, but things still add up. I try to bring items that can serve multiple functions, so devoting space and weight to such a specific tool was not an intuitive choice. But this stake hammer has the feel of a well-crafted tool and does that one job so incredibly well that I'm just going to have to find other uses to justify its place in my gear bag. The balance is perfect for what it's made to do. The size and weight are the minimum necessary to accomplish the task and still be, well, a hammer.