In 1931 or 1932, my father, Gerben Keizer, was working on a barbed wire fence on the "Elm Springs" Killam Farm he rented, just across the Big Sioux River from Fairview, SD. The wire snapped and, being under tension, sprang back and struck him in the face, piercing his sinus. That made him quite angry and also very determined to find a better tool for fencing. He did; and obtained patents both in the United States and in Canada, for his fencing hammer. It would cut wire, stretch it taut, and could pound or pull staples equally well. Only two of his innovative hammers were ever built, however. One, a nickel-plated, "show" hammer, was lost somewhere on the site of 1514 14th Avenue SW, Cedar Rapids, IA by his grandchildren, or disappeared during my family's move from Cedar Rapids to Woodstock, Ontario, Canada in 1960, where we lived until 1967. The second hammer, a well used "workman's model" is still in my possession (2004) but will be left to Gerben Keizer's grandson in my sister's family. Here are photos of the patents granted and of the detailed drawings submitted with the patent applications. Milt Keizer (The patents are bound into booklets, held with laces through metal grommets...the laces have fancy bows and are themselves so old I did not want to even try to take the individual pages out to photograph them.)