A force transducer based on measurement of mean strain in a body has been developed. The transducer can be made stiff and compact and is therefore suitable for measurement of impact forces as well as static forces. An experimental test of a simple first prototype was performed using both static and impact loads with different distributions over the load-carrying area of the transducer. The results of the experiments show that the requirement of insensitivity to differences in load distribution is acceptably fulfilled. Improvements are expected to be possible if the transducer is made in a more accurate way.