Alan wrote:
>How about a piton hammer?
>
>For those of you not crazy enough to climb up sheer rock faces, this
>is a galootish tool used for driving pitons (essentially big iron,
>steel, or rarely aluminum nails of various shapes) into cracks in a
>rock wall, as protection from falls while rock climbing.
>
>If there's a maker's mark with a C in a diamond, then I'm sure you've
>got a piton hammer.  Otherwise, heck, it was worth a try.

I don't think it's a piton hammer, for two reasons. A piton hammer
usually doesn't have a skinny shaft - if anything they're on the fat 
side. Most climbing hammers I've seen also have metal tangs reinforcing
the shaft/head assembly. Also, a piton hammer usually has a stubby 
spike on the back, rather than the wedge Eugene described. 

The spike is used for pounding on pins (pitons) in confined locations
where the head is too large. It's also handy for "gardening" (cleaning 
dirt out of cracks), and is also great for putting through the eye of 
pins and levering them out when they're already loose.

Piton hammers are great galootish tools. That's why I've got three of 'em
(not counting any of my ice hammers). My first one was an old Stubai, which
I subsequently replaced with a Chouinard around 1980 (that's the diamond C
mark - Yvon Chouinard is the climber who founded Patagonia clothing). This
is truly one of my most cherished tools, both for its quality and for the
memories I associate with it.

My last piton hammer I acquired in a strange way just last summer. I was
well up the Canwell Glacier in the Alaska Range and came across a bunch of
junk melting out of the ice. It was apparently the garbage dump for a 
Japanese expedition from the late '70s. Amongst the dead batteries and socks
we found a cool little ladle, a tea kettle, a snow shovel, and a strange
little piton hammer. 

-Eric (just say, there's more than one way to acquire old tools, etc.)