Mallet Opinions

[earthling33]

I'm a complete newb and I'm getting ready to order a basic carving set and a mallet. I'd like to get good quality stuff. I watched one video tutorial where the guy said there's nothing that compares to a good rawhide mallet. Is this true? Is a rawhide mallet the defacto quality standard? I have an 11 oz leather mallet in my cart, but I thought I'd ask for opinions before I pull the trigger.

[Mudruck]

Personally, I have used a mallet in the past and it was okay. I picked up a 21oz maul from Bearman and it is awesome and I would never go back. The balance is much better and it makes longer tooling sessions easier on the arms and wrist. Bearman makes some amazingly beautiful mauls as well!

[Hi Im Joe]

I don't do a ton of tooling but it seems that everyone who does uses mauls rather than mallets.

[Luke Hatley]

Get a Maul...you'll never go back..............

[earthling33]

Thanks everyone for the advice. It looks like I'll be buying a maul or two.

I'm going over to Grand Rapids tomorrow to visit the Tandy Leather Factory store. I want to find some material to start working on.

John

[St8LineGunsmith]

order your tools from springfield leather they are less expensive and you can save a good deal with their wholesale club membership

plus the barry king mauls are better quality than the al stholman mauls

I use the 1 pound maul but thats just me.

[WyomingSlick]

I am with the guy in the video. A mallet is better. The thing is that you need to use it correctly. In tooling, it is not used like you would use a hammer for driving nails. For most tooling, you need to use it by holding it lightly in your palm and fingers, about midway on the handle, and tap the tool by twisting your wrist while resting your elbow on the table. For lighter taps you may choke up on the handle, that is move your hand closer to the head. This allows you to have a kind of bouncing motion which makes it easier to walk your beveler along.

Mauls are favored by toolers who do a lot of deep tooling on saddles. The maul's one big advantage is that they are usually heavier than mallets and thus are easier to make a deep impression with. If you watch a video of someone using a maul then you might notice that for the way they are using it, they may just as well use a brick or a rock. One big disadvantage, particularly for a novice is that you are hitting a small target with a round toolface, and miss-strikes easily occur. Another big disadvantage is their price.

But, on the other hand, I would't pay the price that Tandy is asking for their mallets either. There are literally tons of mallets around, and they are commonly found at garage sales, secondhand stores and such, where they can often be picked up for a few bucks. In fact, come to think of it......I have never bought a mallet from a retail outlet.

And for those people who think mauls are so wonderful....yes I have one, and I do use it sometime for heavy stamping of some large stamps. And then sometime I use my steel Garland with the rawhide faces.

[LTC]

maul is the way to go and it's not just for deep tooling if your technique is correct and you use the right size maul, but anyway...

[rosiart]

earthling 33, I'm with mudruck on this. I have 2 bearman mauls and really like them. I have issues with my elbow and these mauls allow me to work longer with less pain. I emailed with Ed and based on the things I was planning to do, followed his suggestions as to the weight. Mine are 15 and 20 oz. On top of that, they are beautiful :-)

Hope this is helpful.

Edited May 3, 2014 by rosiart

[Art]

It really is a matter of what you get used to and what you like. I started with that little leather mallet from Tandy (it really was Tandy back in those days) which did more to turn me off of mallets than anything else. Next thing was an original Maul Master (the one John Bianchi designed) which was anything but good for tooling. Somewhere along the line I picked up one of Bob's mauls which I use today although it is a little lite for me. For anything heavier than 16oz, the Bearman Mauls are treating me well, a lot like Bob's.

If you are just starting out, stay on the lite size (16 oz. or so), but Maul or mallet is really an individual thing.

Art