What type of hammer? do you use?

[Frodo]

I bought a nice teflon/plastic hammer to strike my tools with.  I do not care for the bounce 

so I grabbed a blade pin off of the D8 dozer. LOL  wrapped it in leather.

it weighs a pound or more. it is my weight to hold items still

it is an anvil

it does not bounce

 

Edited October 12, 2019 by Frodo

[DJole]

You strike something with that, the thing KNOWS it's been struck! 

I just use the yellow poly mallets (one smaller than the other) from Tandy. I haven't had any reason to switch yet.

Edited October 12, 2019 by DJole

[zuludog]

I have a small hide mallet that I bought a few years ago in a craft store sale for about £3 = $4?

I don't do any tooling; the only things I need to hit are stitching chisels and sometimes a hole punch, so this does all I want

 

[Frodo]

4 hours ago, DJole said:

You strike something with that, the thing KNOWS it's been struck! 

I just use the yellow poly mallets (one smaller than the other) from Tandy. I haven't had any reason to switch yet.

I do not hit with it.  it is more like  1 tap

try this

hit a stamp with your poly mallet

then hit the stamp with a regular hammer

 

do you feel a difference?   

[billybopp]

There is certainly room in any leatherworker's toolkit for more than one hammer! 

I started with a couple 14oz rawhide hammers that were given to me with my original toolkit, and used that for quite awhile and it works alright, but lacked the hitting power for things like 3d stamps and gang punches.  So I was at the auto parts store one day and saw a dead-blow hammer, 2lbs I think, and bought it.  It works really great on those 3d stamps, gang punches and belt end punches.  Eventually, I decided to try a round maul for the lighter hits needed for tooling stamps in place of that old rawhide hammer, and after a little practice found that I really liked it.  The old rawhide hammers still get used from time to time, but I mostly rely on the round mauls now.  One of these days I do want to try a tapered round maul, as I think that may work even better for me than the plain round mauls.  With round mauls and hammers, you need to keep your elbow up while tooling for a square hit, a tapered maul would allow me to drop my elbow and maybe even rest it on the worktop which is much more comfy for me.

Sometimes things need to KNOW they've been hit, and other times you need a little more finesse.

- Bill

[Tugadude]

I use a hammer purchased from Harbor Freight with the screw on faces.  Several are dense plastic and there is good weight with no bounce.

Edited October 12, 2019 by Tugadude

[DJole]

7 hours ago, Frodo said:

I do not hit with it.  it is more like  1 tap

try this

hit a stamp with your poly mallet

then hit the stamp with a regular hammer

 

do you feel a difference?   

For punching and stamping, yes -- the weighted deadblow hammer is good. One hit and done. If I did a lot more stamping and punching than I actually do, the deadblow hammer out in the garage would join my mallets in the leather tool box. 
For tooling, where the aim is lighter, repeated taps, the mallets work well. 

[chuck123wapati]

the thumper I use I whittled out of a scrub oak  branch I'd post a picture but you all would laugh at it. It works well, was free and is easily replaceable.

[Frodo]

35 minutes ago, chuck123wapati said:

the thumper I use I whittled out of a scrub oak  branch I'd post a picture but you all would laugh at it. It works well, was free and is easily replaceable.

I NEVER laugh at another's art work, especially when I am making ugly   old cars with 357 motors in them

 

post that hammer so we can all see its beauty!!!!!!!

Edited October 12, 2019 by Frodo

[Frodo]

I found the picture

THIS is UGLY  I needed a copper funnel,  with a 2'' outlet,  So I made one from 1/2'' copper pipe

And I am PROUD OF THE UGLIEST FUNNEL EVER MAD

 

 

[zzmikeg]

I've collected these hammers over the years, some for uses other than leather.  I've tried them all when working with leather, but my favorite/go to hammer is the black one on the far left.  It's a hard rubber mallet with an aluminum handle. I think it weighs about two pounds, maybe?  It's heavier than it looks. The ends have pieces of hard veg tan on them because they've become chewed up.  I'm still kind of newb at this so I haven't encountered every scenario, but I like this hammer because it's quiet yet hard and heavy enough for any tooling I've so far ever done.  

May love and passion be a part of everything you hammer.

[battlemunky]

To be fair, that cheap Chinese maul from Amazon isn't a good judge of mauls. I had mine a week and it chipped and it, still to this day, scoots from the tap side to the top side when I use it. I picked up a rawhide round maul from Frog Jelly and it is quite different and better in a million ways compared to the Amazon maul. I'd suggest trying a better maul before giving up on them. 

[rleather]

I use a Garland  No. 3 rawhide mallet. I had a hand and wrist injury in my past , so I can't use a very heavy mallet. This one seems to be the perfect fit that won't wear out my wrist. I tool and punch with it and it does the job. Can't ask for more.

[toxo]

Here's my motley crew.I favour the 2lb weight. Not so far to lift and it goes back on the work to aid extraction. We don't hit hard enough to harm the implements so I'm guessing the textures on hammer faces are to avoid slipping. When I start doing some tooling I can always glue some thin leather on one face. Is the orange one what's called a deadblow? Seems to have a loose weight inside. Also pictured is my "anvil" . It's very heavy and gets into places other anvils can't reach.

[toxo]

14 hours ago, Frodo said:

I NEVER laugh at another's art work, especially when I am making ugly   old cars with 357 motors in them

 

post that hammer so we can all see its beauty!!!!!!!

Got a few different calibers in there Frodo.

[Frodo]

1 hour ago, toxo said:

Got a few different calibers in there Frodo.

8mm

6.5x55

38 special

357

maybe a 30/06 lol do not remember

[chuck123wapati]

16 hours ago, Frodo said:

I NEVER laugh at another's art work, especially when I am making ugly   old cars with 357 motors in them

 

post that hammer so we can all see its beauty!!!!!!!

Friggin cool stuff !! I will post when I get back from the boonies, two weeks of huntin Elk!!! 

[Frodo]

9 hours ago, chuck123wapati said:

Friggin cool stuff !! I will post when I get back from the boonies, two weeks of huntin Elk!!! 

why you lucky lucky  so and so !!!!

good luck.!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[blue62]

I use a 32oz mail from Barry King for tooling and punches, a old Sears cobblers hammer that I polished the face for tapping stiches and putting glued pieces together, and a ball print for everything else.

[dikman]

These are in my leatherwork/reloading shed. My other sheds also have assorted hammers in them plus blacksmithing hammers in my forge. I've never thought about it before but I have a lot of hammers!

 

[zzmikeg]

On 10/12/2019 at 9:32 PM, battlemunky said:

To be fair, that cheap Chinese maul from Amazon isn't a good judge of mauls. I had mine a week and it chipped and it, still to this day, scoots from the tap side to the top side when I use it. I picked up a rawhide round maul from Frog Jelly and it is quite different and better in a million ways compared to the Amazon maul. I'd suggest trying a better maul before giving up on them. 

I forgot to respond about what you said regarding the Chinese Amazon Maul.   Yes.  Though I use it, I expected more from it.  It's okay, but it certainly isn't impressive.  Now I'll be looking to try out a quality maul as soon as I can test drive one so I can experience the difference.  I appreciate you mentioning it because, as you probably gleaned, I'm a little clueless about these things and knowing about them sooner than later is better. So, great suggestion. 

[battlemunky]

I really like my Frog Jelly maul. It is a bit cheaper than a Barry King which is why I got it. I don't have a BK maul so I can't compare but I do know the Frog Jelly maul is pretty sweet.

Here is the one I have.

[zzmikeg]

2 hours ago, battlemunky said:

I really like my Frog Jelly maul. It is a bit cheaper than a Barry King which is why I got it. I don't have a BK maul so I can't compare but I do know the Frog Jelly maul is pretty sweet.

Here is the one I have.

That's a damn handsome maul, mister.  Thanks for posting it.  I just went through the whole website and their prices are good on everything.  If the quality is there I'll be giving them some business.  I plan to sample some of their products just as soon as I run out of what I'm using now.

[dikman]

Looks good for the money. Having made a rawhide maul (I won't be making another) I can tell you that they are a lot of work, take a long time and are a pain in the butt to make!!

[AndyNext]

A deadblow hammer for punches, stitching chisels. A Tandy rawhide mallet for tooling. A secondhand cobblers hammer off Ebay for hammering stitching, glued leather etc. 

And recently, after watching an Ian Atkinson video, I've started using a ballpein hammer when rounding off copper rivet heads after trimming.