What type of hammer? do you use?

[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.

 

[battlemunky]

@zzmikeg, so far anyway, I have zero issue vouching for their mallets. Its solid and hits pretty even, the handle is stacked leather and fits the hand well. I'd give them my $ again easily.

[MedusaOblongata]

For years I had just been using a rubber mallet I inherited with my father's tools, and that mostly worked well enough. Then in a Cliff's Variety store I saw some mauls for sale. All I knew about mauls was that a lot of y'all leatherworkers recommended them, though I had never tried one. I checked the prices, then compared them to Barry King since it was the only maulmaker I had heard of, and went back inside and bought a Wood Is Good maul for $40. I've been using it for well over a year, and when I need another weight maul I'll get another Wood Is Good (wood handle, poly head). It's not as pretty looking as that leather one, but it works very well, and doesn't look beat up at all.

 

Also, I'm surprised nobody posted the hammer video yet: 

 

[blue62]

I've used the wood is good mauls, they are ok for punches, but the poly head is slightly rubbery so the do bounce some when hitting metal tools, rather than wood handled chisels, after I bought a Barry King maul it was like a night and day difference in the amount of force needed to get a nice impression or cut with a punch, the material the maul head is made of is considerably harder, to me that equals less fatigue when tooling.

[MedusaOblongata]

Thank you for the comparison. That is very helpful.

[billybopp]

I would add to this thread a couple of things that I found did NOT work!   I tried a couple of woodworkers mauls - One all wood, and another rubber - they did not work well.  The wood one tends to dent and eventually chip when hitting metal tools.  The rubber one was just plain too bouncy.  They will work nicely for other things - but not for leather work.  

- Bill