I’ve heard this comparison so many times I ran some experiments. A number 8 1.5" coated decking screw inserted into two one by pine boards through the grain by a hammer holds about half as well as one inserted using a screwdriver. One hit to drive the screw is better than several, but a two hit approach (one to set the angle of the screw tip, the second to send it home) was most reliable. Drilling a pilot hole before hammering improves things pretty significantly, up towards 3/4 of the holding power of a driver driven screw.
On the other hand, even very slight misalignment between the hammer swing and the screw can result in failure, and the board was always more damaged by a hammer inserted screw.
A spoon is not a screwdriver though. It will function as one for a flathead, but if it’s a phillips or robbie you’re shit out of luck, a hammer will still drive those (poorly)
‘Best’ is context bound. If you can’t use it properly, it simply isn’t the best choice and shouldn’t be used
Like a hammer is better than a spoon for driving a screw but neither of them are the tool for the job
I’ve heard this comparison so many times I ran some experiments. A number 8 1.5" coated decking screw inserted into two one by pine boards through the grain by a hammer holds about half as well as one inserted using a screwdriver. One hit to drive the screw is better than several, but a two hit approach (one to set the angle of the screw tip, the second to send it home) was most reliable. Drilling a pilot hole before hammering improves things pretty significantly, up towards 3/4 of the holding power of a driver driven screw.
On the other hand, even very slight misalignment between the hammer swing and the screw can result in failure, and the board was always more damaged by a hammer inserted screw.
A spoon is not a screwdriver though. It will function as one for a flathead, but if it’s a phillips or robbie you’re shit out of luck, a hammer will still drive those (poorly)
Depends on the drive of the screw; if it’s a flathead, the spoon is probably better
You could use them together by using the spoon to put torque on the screw while hammering it in