What weight hammer or maul would you recommend .

[luckystudio13]

What weight maul or hammer would you recommend for punching belt ends and oblon punches . I saw some one recommends a 3 pounder. Would that be too heavy? Any experience with Barry Ling Maul for this purpose? Thanks in advance for the wisdom and advice.

[bruce johnson]

It depends on a few things

How sharp are your punches? Sharper punches or smaller punches and you can go lighter, -  a #3 is as much as I ever needed for anything and not very often.  About the only time I use a 3# is on rosette punches. They have a lot more linear edge than other punches and need a little more force. 

What kind of supporting surface? something with a little flex will need more force than a solid supported surface. End grain stump or post, punching over a supporting leg of a work bench will be more solid with less force absorption than middle of a bench. 

My punching setup was a piece of LDPE over a granite inspection plate on one bench or LDPE on a shoeing anvil.  The mass of either support pretty well negated any flex of whatever it sat on. 

I sell a fair amount of mauls and mostly 2# or 2.5# for strap end and bag punches with the occasional 3# for the bigger punches or duller punches. 

Barry King' mauls are nice with a handle shape for a good grip.

 

 

[luckystudio13]

7 minutes ago, bruce johnson said:

It depends on a few things

How sharp are your punches? Sharper punches or smaller punches and you can go lighter, -  a #3 is as much as I ever needed for anything and not very often.  About the only time I use a 3# is on rosette punches. They have a lot more linear edge than other punches and need a little more force. 

What kind of supporting surface? something with a little flex will need more force than a solid supported surface. End grain stump or post, punching over a supporting leg of a work bench will be more solid with less force absorption than middle of a bench. 

My punching setup was a piece of LDPE over a granite inspection plate on one bench or LDPE on a shoeing anvil.  The mass of either support pretty well negated any flex of whatever it sat on. 

I sell a fair amount of mauls and mostly 2# or 2.5# for strap end and bag punches with the occasional 3# for the bigger punches or duller punches. 

Barry King' mauls are nice with a handle shape for a good grip.

 

 

Excellent tip ! thank you. I just got a 55 lbs small cast iron anvil from Amazon and plan to use that for pounding.For this purpose and not for tooling, would it make sense to get a taper maul or should i stick with hammer ?

[bruce johnson]

8 minutes ago, luckystudio13 said:

Excellent tip ! thank you. I just got a 55 lbs small cast iron anvil from Amazon and plan to use that for pounding.For this purpose and not for tooling, would it make sense to get a taper maul or should i stick with hammer ?

Metal hammers will wear the striking end of your punch fast. Rawhide mallets with replaceable inserts are good and some prefer those.  I like mauls and once we get into that tree then I like tapered mauls best.  

[Hags]

I use a 1 3/4 in belt slot punch from weaver. I recently found a "wood is good" maul from a local "vintage shop" for  $20. Probably not that old, I can still find the website. It's one of the larger mauls, works very well, but not as expensive as BK at all!