Why the special hammers?

[Bender]

I see that leather workers use special wood, leather, or plastic hammers. Fine. But WHY? I'm not doing any stamping yet, just punching holes. Bought a leather working hickory hammer, thinking to do the "right" thing. Basically useless. Tried rubber mallet, plastic faced hammer, and dead blow hammer. All just plain useless. Doing great with a simple brass hammer. So I'm not like thinking I'm some sort of Junior Genius, but rather raises the question, what am I missing? Why use such soft hammers? There's gotta be a reason. Because other wise it seems like it's just making life harder.

[JLSleather]

You would NOT want a "soft" hammer.  Don't want to hit steel tools with a steel hammer - not good for the steel or particularly any plating on them.

Jillion years ago, somebody "invented" the rawhide mallet, which works really really well.  Been done for a long time. But I actually like your idea for a brass hammer ... should be just fine!  I already have rawhide mallets that I'm used to , so I stick with that.  But I've used brass hammers on a lot of things with good results - enough force delivered to do the job without damage to the stamp/punch/etc.  If you're comfortable with the weight and the way it swings, carry on!

 

[Squilchuck]

I used to use hammers, but find round rubber-faced mallets easiest to use.  You can get different weights for different tasks.  --John

[ComputerDoctor]

"Useless"???  Odd that thousands use those useless 'hammer's, in their Leather craft each and every day

I use a plastic headed mallet that I bought when I first got started and it works great and hasn't damaged a tool yet?

I bought an 'Oak' mallet and decided to glue a very thick piece of leather on it and it works okay.

Some use a 'rounded head' mallet, which I don't understand.

I own a Computer, ISP and IT business, within a building that I share with a Dental office, so I do my best to keep the sounds of my Leather  tooling to a minimum: Under my typical 12' by 12" Marble slab, I have a 2 inch thick piece of heavy styro foam and on top of the marble, I use a 3/8 inch black rubber mat and this attenuates a lot of the pounding noise. A Brass or ball peen hammer would be terribly noisy.:(

Make sure your 'Leather' is sufficiently WET as that allows effortless tooling, compared to DRY tooling, which is almost impossible.

Sam:) 

Edited December 18, 2018 by ComputerDoctor

[Sheilajeanne]

My basic leathercraft kit came with a wooden mallet. It was the ONLY thing it the kit that was pretty much worthless. It was just not heavy enough to make a good stamping impression. I soon replaced it with a medium weight polyethylene mallet and have used that ever since.

[Northmount]

I used an original wooden mallet made by my grandfather for many years.  The one thing I didn't like about it was it would drop wood fibres every now and then which would get embedded in my beveling if I wasn't careful. It also gets quite a dish in the face over a period of years.  So I kept one side flat to tap down lacing or stitching and the other side for tooling.  I still have that mallet.  I bought a bunch of tools from a pawn shop some years ago.  It had a poly mallet and a rawhide mallet.  After trying them out, I decided the rawhide mallet was the best of the three.

For heavy punching or large stamps like the 3d stamps or makers mark, I use a deadblow hammer.  It doesn't leave a double image that you get when a regular mallet bounces.

Tom

[Bender]

Well, by "useless" I meant that it just wasn't delivering enough force to actually drive any sort of hole punch or anything through a 10 oz veg tan. (And yes I repeatedly check for sharpness.) And knowing that such have been in use since rocks were soft, yes I was rather befuddled. But then again, said hammer, being wood, it had an extremely light head weight.

I do understand the idea of different hammers for different jobs. One whole drawer of my tool box at work is devoted to nothing but different hammers, from tiny little guys up to a short handled 8# sledge.

I wonder though, I use chisels, punches, drivers etc etc almost daily at work. Most used with a steel hammer. Are these leather tools made from a softer or perhaps more brittle grade steel than what a mechanic's punch or chisel might be made of? Would that be part of why these specialty leather working hammers are made of softer lighter materials? 

 

[bermudahwin]

I picked up a Lignum Vitae mallet at a hardware store years ago, it is well balanced and easy in the hand, hard enough not to damage or be damaged, and as it had been priced but unsold for 25 years, he sold it at the sticker price so about 75 % less than I would have paid.

Happy me.

[Northmount]

1 hour ago, Bender said:

I wonder though, I use chisels, punches, drivers etc etc almost daily at work. Most used with a steel hammer. Are these leather tools made from a softer or perhaps more brittle grade steel than what a mechanic's punch or chisel might be made of? Would that be part of why these specialty leather working hammers are made of softer lighter materials? 

As you are no doubt well aware. striking a steel tool with a steel hammer is going to mushroom the end of the tool over time.  It will also knock any plating loose.  Do you want to have to dress the ends of your tools every so often?  Wouldn't you much prefer the ends of the tools to maintain their appearance? 

With regards to stamps, another factor you may not be aware of is when little flakes of steel or what ever plating (that likely contains some iron) drops onto the surface of damp leather, you will get a reaction between the tannins in veg tanned leather and the iron, causing blue/black spots to show up on the leather. 

When you are using a cold chisel to shear off a rivet or bolt, you have to use a heavy steel hammer to provide the force and impact to do the job.  You expect to dress the head and cutting edges from time to time as part of your normal tool maintenance and to replace them as they become useless.  We are not dealing with the same issues with leather!  Should only need to touch up the cutting edges every so often.  You really can't compare these disparate applications.

Tom

[CelticPrint]

I'll have to try the deadblow hammer Northmount. When I'm was stamping with the wrong hammer I used to get a "double tap." The hammer would drive the stamp down, the stamp would push to it's limit and then the stamp would bounce up, shift ever so slightly just as the hammer fell back down. The double image of the stamp is no fun halfway through a project. Happened to me with thick leather on a rubber mat. Sometimes I just line up the stamp and push down with slow even force by hand, depends on the size of the piece and how many times I have to repeat a pattern. Otherwise I keep 2-3 different hammers and mallets lying around.

[Samalan]

At my wife's daycare i do a tool class for the 4 year old's . One day i did a class on hammers one of the mothers said to me how many hammers dose a man need, then told me how mad she would be if her husband had more than one hammer.So i showed her the hammers i used for the class  around 20 of them  with explanations for all of them,  she said i never knew that,  while looking each one of them over again and again .  this was just one story i like to tell if someone brings up hammers . Northmounts explanation is all you should need it's right on .

[JazzBass]

For large stamps, the dead-blow hammer is marvelous - if you "commit" to a good solid strike, it comes right off the tool with no bounce.
I use a 2lb one for punching holes as well. Works just fine.
They are also quite inexpensive. Try one - you'll like it.

[NVLeatherWorx]

Just an FYI to all those who have had a starter kit in their past that had that little rinky-dink wooden headed hammer, it was intended to be used for tapping down your lace and not much more.  My first tool set (and this goes way back) had that little wooden hammer and a rawhide mallet (which I still have today, over 40 years later; still have the tools as well and that little wooden hammer).  

As far as "useless" I would not go that far because everything in your leathercrafter toolbox has a purpose, the trick is to find out just what purpose it will serve for you.  My mallet of choice though is, and always has been, rawhide and I haven't found anything to beat it yet.

[Aven]

I picked up a rawhide maul from Wrising.com  I really like everything about it, including the price.  It you aren't interested in a rawhide maul, they have a large selection of other styles and materials.

  http://wrising.com/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=2

[JohnSmith48]

I am the new guy here, haven't made my introduction yet.  but I saw this topic and felt the urge to chime in.  I am an avid woodworker and woodcarver.  due to a pretty bad table saw accident a couple of years ago, I am no longer allowed to use it.  I have a wood lathe and started turning mallets of all kinds.  I saw a "metal head" mallet on a boating forum and fell in love with it.  I got the metal lathe chuck so I turn the brass heads and it just took off.

I did some leather work in high school shop class and I like it. . . . but never did it again.  now, at 72, I have rekindled the interest and started "dabbling" in the hobby again.  I use the brass metal head hammer and the rawhide mallet.  I love the small brass hammer as it takes less energy to set the stamp.  I finished a leather ammo cuff for a .410 pump shotgun today and I see myself doing more and more projects.

(I will get my intro done soon).  but here are some of the metal head hammers and mallets that I have made.  [you can find similar ones on E-Bay, etc. for decent prices].

 

Edited December 27, 2019 by JohnSmith48

[eglideride]

Beautiful! I want one! and I am sure others here will too! 

[Sheilajeanne]

The reason leather working mallets don't have metal heads is that  a metal hammer will eventually damage the top of the stamp, and possibly bend the shaft, especially if the stamp is made from cheap metal. Also, metal against metal is likely to bounce, and possibly cause a blurred or double impression of the stamp.

Your tools are GORGEOUS!!  I am sure if you ever want to make a bit of money on the side, you would find a ready market for these tools! I think I can hear the woodworkers on this board drooling over them already... 

Edited December 28, 2019 by Sheilajeanne

[Bert51]

And a Hammer for every Job.

You have made some Beautiful looking Hammers.

Bert.

[JohnSmith48]

thanks for the reviews !!

yes, there is a hammer (or mallet) for every job.  for the "lesser robust" stamping tools, I use the rawhide hammer.  and for the "more robust" stamping tools made of stainless steel, I use the brass hammers.  the silver mallets shown in the photos have either aluminum or stainless steel heads.  a mallet or hammer responds directly to the skill of the craftsman doing the work.  these are made mainly for the folks that do wood carving.  so you have a metal head impacting a wood handle.  I like the brass head hammer just because - I like it.

I guess I am a tool junkie - always experimenting.  thanks again for the kind words and Happy New Year to everyone !!

as for the original poster, and the original question;  the tools are inexpensive.  I suggest you purchase a rawhide mallet, a wood mallet, a plastic mallet and see which works the best for you and the type of work you normally do.

this is my 40 year old rawhide mallet - not the prettiest girl at the dance - but gets the job done.  this mallet lived most of its life on my paint table back when I had a sign shop.  looks aren't as important as long as it is the proper weight and size for the work you are using it for.

Edited December 30, 2019 by JohnSmith48
added photo