Screws are a secure way to hold two objects together and will do their jobs so well that over time, as they rust and corrode, they become almost impossible to remove. There’s no shortage of tools and lubricants that promise to dislodge a hopelessly stuck screw, but none seem as satisfying to use as these screwdrivers that only work when you smash them with a hammer.
Most people will go at a stubborn screw with a can of WD-40 in an attempt to ‘grease the wheels’ by saturating the problem in lubricant. It’s a good start, but only if the WD-40 can work its way down into the threads that are holding the screw securely in place — most of the time it can not. The most effective solution, unfortunately, is to use a drill bit to completely destroy the screw and clean out the hole entirely because generating enough torque with a screwdriver (or a pair of pliers) to break the hold that rust or corrosion has created is all but impossible with your bare hands.
After spending an hour trying to dislodge a stuck screw you’ll probably already be in the mood to grab a hammer and smash everything in sight, so Crescent Tools has created the Screw Biter Impact Extraction Screwdrivers that channel that rage-fuelled energy into a solution that appears to be far less messy than lubricants and drill bits, and possibly far more effective.
If you can swing a hammer, the Screw Biter sounds easy enough to use. When the screwdriver is aligned with the problematic screw, all you need to do is strike its steel endcap with a hammer. The force of the blow activates the Screw Biter’s internal mechanism with turns the shank 12-degrees with more torque than could ever be produced by turning the screwdriver by hand. It’s a small amount of rotation, but with a tremendous amount of force that should be more than enough to break a screw free, allowing it to then be easily unscrewed the rest of the way by hand.
Pricing and availability details aren’t known yet, but the Screw Biter will come in both Phillips #2 and quarter-inch slotted styles, and thanks to a spring inside the handle the turning mechanism is only activated by the force of a hammer blow. The rest of the time the Screw Biters will work as regular old screwdrivers letting you also install the screws that will potentially one day be a pain to remove.