A dead blow hammer has a skeleton including a cylindrical head tube and a cylindrical neck tube fixed to the head tube and projecting laterally therefrom and receiving therein a disk-like plastic spacer and the working end of an elongated plastic handle core, which is adhesively secured in the neck tube. The head tube contains shot and the ends thereof are closed by end caps having cylindrical, longitudinally-slotted flanges press-fitted in the ends of the head tube. The entire skeleton is encapsulated in an overmolded plastic sheath which includes an inner covering and a flexible and resilient grip further overmolded on the inner covering adjacent to the distal end of the handle member.