A Black Country* colloquialism which literally translates as “give it some hammer”, encouraging the subject to try harder. The phrase dates to the days when chain and other metal products were made by hand and hitting it harder resulted in more force being exterted in the forging process.
The video clip shows hand finishing of a link being bent in our factory in the early 1980s. It gives an idea of the heat and effort involved in forging chain but this semi-automatic process pales in comparison to earlier techniques of forming and welding links 100% by hand. It could take a team of 5 men up to a day to complete a link of similar size to that shown!
*The ‘Black Country’ is an area to the west of Birmingham synonymous with the birth of the Industrial Revolution in Britain around 1760 and the birthplace of chain making globally.
