Hot take: a kid at the flea market said my hammer looked "too clean" and it stuck with me
Last Saturday I was set up at the flea market over in Springfield and a teenager picked up my cross peen, turned it over twice, and put it back down. He said it looked too clean to be a real working hammer. At first I got a little sore about it, but then I looked at my whole rack and he was right. Almost every handle was shiny because I keep reaching for the same three tools and the rest just hang there. I've been wiping them down with oil and calling that maintenance, but a tool that never gets hot isn't telling me anything. So now I'm wondering, do you all break in every hammer you own or just run a couple hard and let the others stay pretty?