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It’s OK but there’s much better

I picked up both the 14 ounce and 12 ounce versions of this mill-faced titanium Stiletto from a dedicated hammer website. At the same time, I also bought a 16 ounce Dalluge from Amazon. The Stilettos were for my boys and the Dalluge was for me.

A year and a house later, and the clear winner is the Dalluge. Actually it pretty much won right out of the box - it’s that good.

The 14 ounce Stiletto suffered a lost magnet early on. Shortly after that, the handle broke (son’s fault - not Stiletto). Stiletto was good about replacing the magnet for free (while buying a new handle). My son chose the straight handle as a replacement because he liked my straight Dalluge handle so much. Of course that’s as far as he could go in trying to clone my Dalluge.

-The finish on the handle is still too ‘new’. It still hasn’t broke in, even after plenty of use. The finish is too aggressive.
-The balance of the Stiletto is off in both the 12 and 14. It just doesn’t swing as true as a 16 ounce Dalluge. I believe Stiletto has a 15 ounce version - maybe this would balance better, maybe not.
-The 16 ounce hits harder, but swings lighter, than the 14 ounce Stiletto. It’s really obvious and again may be due to balance. It also may have to do with the Dalluge’s unique Douglas head/handle mounting system.
-The Stiletto has a big fat nail face that doesn’t perform like the flat-top shaped Dalluge.
-The titanium chipped early-on.
-The mill face did not hold up well. The Dalluge is in far better shape with far more use which included naughty catspaw and flatbar pounding on occasion.
-The Stiletto is ‘just ok’. Far better than a steely, but nothing special other than it is light like all titaniums.

In the market for a new hammer? Not sure about titanium? Elbow or shoulder problems, or just don’t want problems? Don’t stop here at the Stiletto - there are more titanium hammers to consider. Check out my extensive review of the Dalluge mill-faced hammer. Amazon offers it at a great price, and after experiencing both I would recommend checking out the Dalluge. It has reviewed at nothing short of 5-star thus far - and for good reason.
Mill face version: Dalluge 7180 16 Ounce Titanium Hammer
Smooth face version: Dalluge DDT16P 16 Ounce DDTP Titanium Hammer

Update (5/19/2012): This item is currently on sale here for the lowest price I’ve seen.

The featured review for this product, Stiletto Ti12SC-16 Ti 12-Ounce Smooth Face Hammer with a Curved 16-Inch Hickory Handle Tools & Hardware, was written by B. Faulkner.

The average rating for this item is 2.7 out of 5 stars, according to 3 reviews.