FuBar Demolition Tool
Hammer and pry bar for wrecking
The FuBar ($17) is a single cast piece of high carbon steel that looks like a prettied up hammer. One end has a hammer and a tearing, armour-penetrating beak, while the opposite end has a conventional pry bar and nail puller. You can use it to drive nails, but what it really excels in is F’ing things up beyond recognition — hence FuBar. You hit something with the axe-like end until it’s weakened, then hit again, twist to pry, and CRUNCH!
When my girlfriend’s home suffered minor flooding, the damaged furniture needed removing urgently. But the furniture, including a bed and a very sturdy sofa bed, were too big to be removed through a doorway that had been put out of commission. The sofa bed just laughed at our attempts to take it apart using a heavy claw hammer and pry bar. The hammer bounced off the thing’s ultra solid construction, making it more likely that I’d be damaged than the sofa. Hitting with a hammer can be dangerous; even if it has a straight beak instead of a claw, it’s comparatively likely to recoil and bounce; you need many more hits and each one is much riskier. Demolition is a very violent activity and from my experience FuBar can make it safer, as well as much faster. There’s more control, fewer blows are needed, and less contact with the object being destroyed are required – which matters, because said object usually becomes a mass of sharp nails and wood early in the process, and the less you have to risk cuts and tetanus by getting close up, the better. It’s also durable — looks the same now as before I destroyed enough furniture to fill a pickup.
I have the smallest version, a 2.5-pound FuBar 2. The FuBar has just been updated into the “FuBar 3” model, which comes in 3 sizes (2.5, 4 and 8 pounds) and has a few minor changes to the shape of the hammer/pickaxe and prybar. I think you’d only want a larger FuBar if you were doing some very serious demolition. And even then, you’d probably want the 2.5-pounder as well. I find it can be used one or two-handed (making use from a ladder possible) and it also works well as a nail driving hammer. It’s a little heavy, but superbly balanced. Note: Be sure to buy safety goggles — and I recommend well-ventilated ones with an anti-mist coating. You’ll sweat much more using a FuBar than an electric drill, and misted up goggles can easily result in a badly gashed hand.
08/28/18(This is a Cool Tools Favorite from 2008 — editors)
FuBar ($17)
