The mic you are thinking of here is the Electro-Voice 635, not a Shure SM-57/58. I believe some advertisements for the 635 actually showed it being used as a hammer, supposedly attesting to it's ruggedness.
Dunno about the original advertising, but anecdotally, every musician who's told me a story about a microphone tough enough to hammer nails with, has been talking about an SM-58.
Google for the search term "SM-58 hammer nails" and you'll get an enormously long string of hits, including You Tube videos, magazine articles, and anecdotal stories.
-Gnobuddy
Yes, you are right!! Pretty tough little microphone there! But it doesn't really make a very good hammer, does it??😀
But there has to be a microphone that sounds better like the Nady mentioned here that DOESN'T destruct from blowing into it hard........eh???
I don't know of one. It's like asking for featherweight steel - mutually incompatible requirements, and no way to reconcile them.
There are very tough mics, like the ones made (from woofers!) especially for close-miking kick drums:
1) Q. Can I make a 'Subkick' mic from any speaker cone? | Sound On Sound
2) Recording: In The Studio: DIY Subkick Microphone - Pro Sound Web
These are very tough, compared to any normal mic, thanks to the very heavy cone and coil. You could probably blow on one without hurting it. But - they are only usable with kick drums, because the moving parts are far too beefy to respond to anything other than those very low frequencies.
Setting aside the Subkick and it's family, I'm pretty sure any good quality studio mic will be destroyed if you blow into it. The better the mic, the thinner the mic diaphragm or ribbon - and the more fragile it will be. Ribbon mics are notoriously fragile (a sneeze would certainly destroy one), but good condenser mics are fragile, too.
The Nady is tough as condenser mics go; it's not a studio condenser mic, and has two screens already built into it, one inside the other. The mic body is very beefy, and probably would survive use as a hammer. But it is still a precision instrument compared to the blunt cudgel that is the SM-58, and as I found out the hard way, will not withstand abuse directed straight at the delicate diaphragm.
The Ear Trumpet Labs mic being used by the Milk Carton Kids, Della Mae, and other mostly acoustic groups, is also a condenser mic. I'm sure it won't stand up to someone blowing into it, either, and it will cost someone $550 to try the experiment. 😱
It's been six years since I wrote that Amazon review, by the way, and I've not lost an SPC-25 in all that time. I have two SPC-25s now, and one of my friends got a third one for herself after she borrowed mine once, sang through it, and found out how much better she sounded!
I do use those foam windscreens on my SPC-25s now, for protection against any other singers who think blowing into a mic is a good way to test it. 😀
But the bottom line - and every singer and musician and podcaster and public speaker should know this - is never blow into any microphone, ever! You do not want to be the person who blew up a $16,000 microphone! ( Neumann U47 Vintage Tube Microphone | eBay )
-Gnobuddy
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