CUSTOM MADE—Thousand Oaks resident Steve Howard displays the hammers he makes at his home. Not too many products are fabricated here in Conejo Valley. JANN HENDRY/Acorn Newspapers All over the world craftsmen, carpenters and ordinary people pick up hammers and pound away.

Some create beautiful woodwork. Others build houses. Some hit their fingers as they try to hang a picture.

In the early 1980s, a Thousand Oaks man picked up a hammer and began dreaming of a better one— one with greater balance and a handle that felt good in his hand.

Professional carpenter Steve Howard didn’t stop at dreaming.

Howard, now 55, designed his own line of hammers and started manufacturing them at his home 20 years ago. The Howard Tool Company has made millions of dollars selling hundreds of thousands of hammers over the years, he said. Each hammer sells for $30 to $40.

“It’s a tough, tough business. Why I’m sticking with it I don’t know,” Howard said.

Still, he keeps pounding away. Most of the hammers he makes go to Canada, he said.

Howard’s parents moved to Thousand Oaks in the 1970s. When he visited them, he fell in love with the area and made the Conejo Valley his home several years later.

A student of architecture in the early ’80s, Howard was working construction as a carpenter while he took classes.

“I’ve been a carpenter all of my life. When I saw a need for hammers, I designed one,” he said.

“My claim to fame is frontal balance. That balance makes the hammer feel a lot lighter,” he said.   For more information, call The Howard Tool Company at (805) 496-8935.

—Nancy Needham