Learned to feel the heat through the tongs is the part people skip over. That old guy probably knows exactly how long he has before something goes from warm to screaming just by the color and the pull in his arm. Gloves do dull that, no question. But the trade off is he's one slip from a scar that could end his whole hobby, and most of us don't have 30 years of calluses built up to back up that kind of confidence. So yeah it's a real skill, just not one I'd copy from a guy who's already paid his dues in burns.

How many swings did the 22 oz actually save you per nail though? I ran the same test on a deck last summer and the heavy hammer maybe saved one swing every four or five nails. So you burn more energy swinging that extra weight on EVERY hit just to save a few swings over the whole wall. By noon my forearm was toast with the 22 and fine with the 16. What nail were you pulling, a 16d sinker or a coated one? Coated nails change the math since they drive way easier.