Basically my wrist and forearm easily become sore before making much tooling / stamping progress. I'm looking into purchasing a mallet or maul and before dumping big money into the toilet I would like people to post photos of their used and abused mallets and mauls. Most mallets and mauls don't appear to be repairable with the exception of split head mallets that use inserts. I turned a scrap wood maple handle and epoxied it into pvc 2" id pipe, the head was pretty slippery when striking and maul weight was only 11 ounces 6-7 strikes for an impression. A crafts man red 1lb dead blow mallet took 5 strikes to make an impression on moist thick leather. Harbor freight metal mallet with 2 plastic heads 3 - 4 strikes. My 1 pound brass hammer may work well as it has good solid strikes. If the the hobby store leather stamps actually stuck to a magnet one may be able to use a brass hammer. Most cheap stamps are obviously poor quality and have very porous metal grain if you even dare to call it metal. Its a shame I should feel need to switch hobbies and use blacksmithing skills I have learned at a workshop seminar to maybe make my own stamps. If I do that I'll have to first need to build a propane forge, then harden and temper the leather stamps as hard as a cold chisel used to cut steel. I'm almost to the point of melting 10 HDPE milk cartons as seen on u tube and turn one on my wood lathe.
Thanks for your time everyone.
