Measly
A very blonde friend of mine whom we shall call 'Blonde Claire' (for that is what we have always called her) has a track record of brilliantly blonde moments, accentuated by a broad Essex accent. These incidental facts are tempered by the fact she's also an internationally respected scientist with a PhD in Geology.

On starting our undergraduate degrees together some 10+ years ago we had to get together our standard field kit; water bottle, compass clinometer, hand lens, geological hammer etc.

Blonde Claire was somewhat daunted by the amount of things she had to carry around with her; as well as being blonde she is also very slight of frame. She therefore undertook a very simple rationilisation project.

Rather than carry around a big bulky couple of kilos of steel hammer, she went down to the local DIY shop and got herself a tack hammer. The most pathetic little thing you've ever seen, which immediately became named Measly. 8 inches long, narrow wooden handle, easily fitted into a pocket. The stump left in the closing scenes of Shawshank was more substantial than this thing.

Measly the hammer came with us on a great number of field trips, and was tested at hundreds of outcrops, on hundreds of rock types, at every stage of weathering, in a number of countries, with varying amounts of enthusiasm, by a number of people.

Not once did we find a rock it could break.
(OP, Tue 8 Mar 2011, 17:31, Reply)