poidog
Active member
Well with all this hammer drama talk and people's heads spinning about what is what, and since Herbie asked what made up a nice hammer, here is an informative post on hammers, their coloration, and market pricing. I hope you find it useful and enjoy!
Types of Hammers:
Wall - Euphyllia ancora
Wall hammers are the hammers that come in all the crazy colors from common brown to extremely rare yellow. They form one continuous skeleton in a wall type structure with a single tissue along the skeleton. Fragging can be done easily but with the right tools. First, locate the mouths in the area in which you want to frag. Using a rubber band to wrap around the coral in between mouths where you would want to cut. Over the course of a couple days the tissue will recede away from where the rubber band is pinching. Remove the rubber band. You may now cut the coral without damaging the tissue. Proceed with cutting along the newly exposed skeleton with a dremel or bandsaw.
Branching - Euphyllia parancora
Branching hammers come in a limited number of colors, from common brown to a more infrequent neon green. They form individual skeletal stalks with the tissue polyp on top of the stalk. Fragging can be done simply by cutting a stalk off, but use caution as they can be brittle.
Hammer Colors/Rarity/Market Pricing
Hammer colors come in a variety of colors and some are rare than others. Most of the crazy colored wall hammers come out of Australia. The indo/pacific has shown a nice supply of more branching hammers, along with some neon green ones.
Commons:
Browns, tank, green tipped. These will run you priced by the size of the coral, but are inexpensive starting at $10-30.
Intermediates:
These are a nicer grade hammer with either brighter green aka neon greens or by colored hammers (green with purple tips). These are a bit more spardic and becuase of that the price goes up. you can find ones like these around the $75-$100 price range. Some very nice specienes can go for upwards of $250 like the one below
Rare
This is where things get tricky and pricing is based on the rarity of the color, color grade, and size. Here I will show what some of the different colors are, what some of the different color grades are and the price ranges associated with each.
Blue
A real true blue hammer does not come around too often. Beware of those who try and sell you a blue hammer that is blue just because of the lights it is under, when in fact it is a common tanish/blue colored hammer. An example of this is the ORA hammer (from the Solomon Islands)which is a branching hammer (instead of a wall) that is only blue in photos under intense blue light.
Real blue hammer - price usually ranges $150-$200
Fake blue hammer - price range usually $20-$60
Pink
Pink hammers are interesting as they aren't seen too much and are a beautiful subtle color pink. They range in price from $150-$200
Highlighter Greens
These are the most neon green hammers you can get... so bright as they are similar to the neon green/yellow ink of a highlanter, hence the name. Their price changes by how bright and how far to the yellow spectrum they go. Prices range from $150-$300. Top is more yellow and an example of a higher priced one.
Toxic Greens
With these, not only are their tips green but also their stalks. These are the hardest of the greens to come by and the price goes up with how neon the color is as those are more rare. Prices range from $150-500+
Orange
Now this is where things get a little interesting. Because orange is a rare color (2nd rarest), people like to stretch at what they call orange. Below are some of the different variants of orange hammers and expected cots (as to not to be ripped off paying for a premium orange when that is not what you got).
Brown/Orange - $100
Peachy Orange - $100-$300
Metallic or True Orange - $200-$400
Neon Orange - $500+
Yellow
True Yellow is the rarest of the rare and I only know of them being imported into the country of around 2-ish a year. These do not show up at your regular LFS and those with rare coral contacts score these beauties. I hit myself because I had the opportunity to buy one of the first that entered the country, and in hindsight it was an excellent price and should of jumped on it. These hammers now sell for around $800 +/-
And here is a comparison of the rarities Yellow, highlighter green, and orange
Types of Hammers:
Wall - Euphyllia ancora
Wall hammers are the hammers that come in all the crazy colors from common brown to extremely rare yellow. They form one continuous skeleton in a wall type structure with a single tissue along the skeleton. Fragging can be done easily but with the right tools. First, locate the mouths in the area in which you want to frag. Using a rubber band to wrap around the coral in between mouths where you would want to cut. Over the course of a couple days the tissue will recede away from where the rubber band is pinching. Remove the rubber band. You may now cut the coral without damaging the tissue. Proceed with cutting along the newly exposed skeleton with a dremel or bandsaw.
Branching - Euphyllia parancora
Branching hammers come in a limited number of colors, from common brown to a more infrequent neon green. They form individual skeletal stalks with the tissue polyp on top of the stalk. Fragging can be done simply by cutting a stalk off, but use caution as they can be brittle.
Hammer Colors/Rarity/Market Pricing
Hammer colors come in a variety of colors and some are rare than others. Most of the crazy colored wall hammers come out of Australia. The indo/pacific has shown a nice supply of more branching hammers, along with some neon green ones.
Commons:
Browns, tank, green tipped. These will run you priced by the size of the coral, but are inexpensive starting at $10-30.
Intermediates:
These are a nicer grade hammer with either brighter green aka neon greens or by colored hammers (green with purple tips). These are a bit more spardic and becuase of that the price goes up. you can find ones like these around the $75-$100 price range. Some very nice specienes can go for upwards of $250 like the one below
Rare
This is where things get tricky and pricing is based on the rarity of the color, color grade, and size. Here I will show what some of the different colors are, what some of the different color grades are and the price ranges associated with each.
Blue
A real true blue hammer does not come around too often. Beware of those who try and sell you a blue hammer that is blue just because of the lights it is under, when in fact it is a common tanish/blue colored hammer. An example of this is the ORA hammer (from the Solomon Islands)which is a branching hammer (instead of a wall) that is only blue in photos under intense blue light.
Real blue hammer - price usually ranges $150-$200
Fake blue hammer - price range usually $20-$60
Pink
Pink hammers are interesting as they aren't seen too much and are a beautiful subtle color pink. They range in price from $150-$200
Highlighter Greens
These are the most neon green hammers you can get... so bright as they are similar to the neon green/yellow ink of a highlanter, hence the name. Their price changes by how bright and how far to the yellow spectrum they go. Prices range from $150-$300. Top is more yellow and an example of a higher priced one.
Toxic Greens
With these, not only are their tips green but also their stalks. These are the hardest of the greens to come by and the price goes up with how neon the color is as those are more rare. Prices range from $150-500+
Orange
Now this is where things get a little interesting. Because orange is a rare color (2nd rarest), people like to stretch at what they call orange. Below are some of the different variants of orange hammers and expected cots (as to not to be ripped off paying for a premium orange when that is not what you got).
Brown/Orange - $100
Peachy Orange - $100-$300
Metallic or True Orange - $200-$400
Neon Orange - $500+
Yellow
True Yellow is the rarest of the rare and I only know of them being imported into the country of around 2-ish a year. These do not show up at your regular LFS and those with rare coral contacts score these beauties. I hit myself because I had the opportunity to buy one of the first that entered the country, and in hindsight it was an excellent price and should of jumped on it. These hammers now sell for around $800 +/-
And here is a comparison of the rarities Yellow, highlighter green, and orange
