Reduce Noise Tooling Leather?

[Kevin]

I used to put my marble slab on a stack of phone books in the middle of the bed. (wash. DC phone books, they were big)

Kevin

[HellfireJack]

I work on my bed as well when I need to be quiet. Then you just hear the slap of the maul. You have to be wary of bounce though. You'll get a lot of double impressions if you're not paying attention.

Also when punching holes or other extremely noisey endeavors use the heaviest hammer/maul you can. I bought a small 2.5lb steel sledge and wrapped it in leather and it works great. It'll drive a hole punch through anything (Including the poundo board) in one blow.

[Logans Leather]

The thicker your slab is, the less sound it will make. I work on a 4" thick granite slab. Thicker does not always mean expensive either. Some times they can be had for little or no money from a gravestone/ monument maker. They will often have a pircee around that they made a mistake on and had to start over, and it is usually too much trouble for them to re-cut and resurface them. As to sound dampening and vibration blocking, I would talk to the folks at E-A-R Speacity Composites about what would be most effective(www.earsc.com). We used their products for noise dampening and vibration isolation in armored limousines at a company I used to work for.

[impulse]

Tommy,

Someone here suggested to try tooling with the granite block on your knees. Not the most comfortable way to tool, but there is practically no sound coming from your tapping.

Just make sure you take breaks so its not too hard on your back

May dampen the sound of tapping - it's the agonized groans of the tapee that needs deadening!

[mikesmith648]

I fold a bath towel and put it under my granite slab............no more complaints from the downstairs apt anymore!!

[Jimbob]

As been said, a granite block, good mallet and a large wet bi-folded towl under the granite works wonder!!

Jim

[Harag]

Sorry to bring up an old topic, but I'm new to tooling and have a counter granite top on my nee - about 1" thick, but the downstairs people are complaining about me hammering. When I was buy my starting stuff I wasn't sure what to buy so I bought a cheap hammer:

http://www.leprevo.co.uk/photos/mallet.html

I think the noise I'm getting is actually the hammer hitting the stamps, but this hammer is only about 10 oz I think as I do have a 16oz rubber hammer I bought for hammering punches for holes, but this feels just too heavy for tooling (though not actually tried it). I've read other people using 16oz hammers above, don't you find these too heavy?

I currently have the granite on my knees so was going try putting a cushion under it on the next weekend session. Does anyone have any suggestions which hammer I should get in the UK? Should I try 16oz and see how I get on with it?

[Jax]

Harag, I use Thor rawhide mallets, they come in several different sizes, Ive found 3 & 4 work best for me, I do have a 5 but find it uncomfortable to use, Im always getting moaned at for hammering & am thinking of trying to get an off cut of rubber stable matting to put under my box stack that I work on....can only try

[Cyberthrasher]

16 oz is a good preferable weight for most tooling. Any less and you're hitting harder than you need to, which causes more noise. Along the same lines, there's less mass in the mallet/maul to absorb the noise. Holding a granite slab on your knee may be quiter, but it won't produce good tooling. Find a solid surface to put it on and get some more mass underneath the granite if you have to.

[Harag]

Thanks all, I'll try my 16oz rubber mallet I got and see how I go from there. The only reason I have it on my knee is that the work top I have is a chest of draws, old and solid - but a little too high to tool on, I need a higher chair. I'll give it a go next time.