Question about Striking / Tooling Sticks

[ChasCS]

40 minutes ago, tmwp43 said:

My current collection. As I am sure you can tell some I prefer over others. There have been some that have come and gone. Usually to someone that felt more in-tune with them than I did. 

I am really looking forward to trying my new creations, once they are finished.

Tane

That's a nice set of mauls & mallets...I may have to post a pic of my heavy and not so heavy hitters. Later.

Yeah and perhaps a few of my own lathe turned sticks. ;-)

 

Chas

Edited December 25, 2017 by ChasCS

[bikermutt07]

12 hours ago, bruce johnson said:

Bikermutt pretty well described the motion I use and was taught by a couple guys who made a living stamping. They were elbow resting, wrist rocking fools. Basically the stamp  driving tool of choice was a teeter totter and all you did was keep it rocking. The weight and fall of the driver did the rest. I never got as good as they did at keeping my elbow down, but i could go pretty long time spans. A few years ago some shoulder stuff was catching up with me and some of the tooling got to be a chore after a full day of work. The leatherwork side of my business was expanding but the tool side of things was growing faster. I had to make the decision and now mostly deal in tools based on my experience of using a lot of them. 

Just to show where I'm coming from I am attaching a picture of the stamping tool driving tools I have on hand and have used. Some I've used a lot more than others. Most of these are on my bench or recent acquisitions. I've got some in other sizes, some out on "try it first" deals and a couple "compare and send me back the one you don't want" trials. These are what I have right now handy. Some were early tools or ones like  i used starting out 30 years ago as a hobby and doing my own repairs. Some were heavily used in my busiest times. One is as recent as probably made last month. 

back row Left to right -

Striking stick -BTW, that is rawhide on both ends - 8 faces to wear before it needs to be recovered. If I was doing a lot of work, it would be right there handy/Rawhide maul/Unmarked maul and that's all I can say - nice poly type head head material/Don King maul/rawhide mallet/Bob Beard maul/Barry King tapered maul/CS Osborne split head hammer with rawhide inserts/three Wayne Jueschke tapered mauls and one laying in front. The two on the left have MILES on them. That's one reason I have them but there are others. The sticker price  of $100 plus on each doesn't make them everyone's choice

Foreground left - Clay Miller I just got a week ago/Harbor Freight hammer with fiberglass and rubber faces/Bear Man maul with the burl handle. 

There's probably a few I haven't tried but these represent most of the major players.

 

Bruce, it is such a small world. You may not believe it, but I have that same harbor freight mallet. LoL

[YinTx]

Those striking sticks do not look too difficult to make.  What sort of wood and weight should they be?

YinTx

[bikermutt07]

48 minutes ago, YinTx said:

Those striking sticks do not look too difficult to make.  What sort of wood and weight should they be?

YinTx

I would imagine (as primitive as they are) they are just sticks of hardwood. Maple, pecan, oak, etc.

[tmwp43]

I've picked Katalox for my attempt at making one of these striking sticks. It has a Janka hardness of 3660 and I estimate the finished piece should weight in at somewhere between 2.5 and 3 lbs.

[Sanch]

Hmmmm... Delrin heads center aluminium handle hmmmm.... my tool junkie is kicking in!!

[ChasCS]

Mine doesn't have delrin heads, but for $249, that's a little pricey. Plus they are made for forming/shaping metal.

http://ns1.holidays.net/store/Metal-Shaping-Mallet-Set-wooden-Handle-With-Delrin-Heads_382137292524.html

A little bit cheaper, but metal handle.

http://www.proshapertools.com/product/metal-shaping-mallet-delrin-heads-metal-handle/

Yes, but I do like the look of that one with the wooden handle, mine is made from metal. Just way too pricey for my budget.

Chas

 

[bruce johnson]

8 hours ago, bikermutt07 said:

I would imagine (as primitive as they are) they are just sticks of hardwood. Maple, pecan, oak, etc.

Yes, they were. The first striking stick given to me was a section of ax handle that had been drilled out and leaded, then rawhide wrapped. I used that one until I got the two fancier ones out of Art Vancore's shop i pictured earlier. I've had lighter ones that weren't leaded. Tandy sold one that had a hard plastic on the ends, that had a similar oval cross section.  I have seen them made from balusters for handrails too. 

[YinTx]

1 hour ago, bruce johnson said:

a section of ax handle that had been drilled out and leaded, then rawhide wrapped

What is the range of weights that you have used, and for items like book covers, wallets, etc, what would you recommend?

YinTx

[Mjolnir]

14 hours ago, bikermutt07 said:

 

just a thought, my uncle had a night stick in the 70's it was drilled out and had mercury it the center. It would get heavy when you swung it. Like I said, just a thought. He did die from a brain disorder, so maybe that's a bad thought.

[Sanch]

4 hours ago, ChasCS said:

Mine doesn't have delrin heads, but for $249, that's a little pricey. Plus they are made for forming/shaping metal.

http://ns1.holidays.net/store/Metal-Shaping-Mallet-Set-wooden-Handle-With-Delrin-Heads_382137292524.html

A little bit cheaper, but metal handle.

http://www.proshapertools.com/product/metal-shaping-mallet-delrin-heads-metal-handle/

Yes, but I do like the look of that one with the wooden handle, mine is made from metal. Just way too pricey for my budget.

Chas

 

That's a ridiculous amount to pay for a hammer that is not being used for its intended use! You would have been better off purchasing a professionally-made maul! Just my humble opinion

[ChasCS]

I never bought one, only sharing the pic and addy. Yes, that would be cost prohibitive for me. No wonder auto body repair is so expensive. Haha

I need to post a pic of my current hammers, mauls, mallets and more. So you can see, I'm in no shortage of things to slam, tap, and nail with.

Will make a point of doing that pic in the morning light tomorrow. I have wanted to share that for a while already, anyway.

When I said, mine is made of metal, it's not one mentioned, but was donated to me, in a box of free tools, shipped from Australia. 

 

Chas

 

[plinkercases]

I can see that holding the stricking tool as illustrated keeps yoir arm and hand and tool out of the line of sight to the work... i struggle sometimes seeing the work and avoiding shadows etc... i am going to try this even if with a chunk of wood to see of makes it easier to see the work. I also like the idea of resting the elbow and seems like it is a more joint friendly motion...

I assume when using this technique you sit at the bench.

[ChasCS]

Ok, let's line these bad boys up, and get a pic, while the sun is out...

Gotta love these short days, where it's already dark by 5:00pm MST. ;-)

Quite the collection, for a small town boy. Ha

Wow. 1.6mb restriction... Now what?

Chas

Edited December 26, 2017 by ChasCS

[Sanch]

On 12/24/2017 at 5:25 AM, tmwp43 said:

a couple more examples

The 2 in the second picture are they the same as the 1st? I think they are beautiful the grain of the wood really pops!

[tmwp43]

I don't know for sure. These are photos I collected while doing research on how to make the striking sticks.

[JD62]

the second one looks like rose wood to me

[Sanch]

10 hours ago, tmwp43 said:

I don't know for sure. These are photos I collected while doing research on how to make the striking sticks.

 They look nice who's ever they are.  Also I did a search for a video of using these things and of course I didn't find anything at all everything I found was Maul or mallet, I know there was an explanation and some pictures on how to use them and I have a very good idea of how they're used but would like to see them in action I'm sure most of us would!

Edited December 27, 2017 by Sanch