mallets & mauls

[Billsotx]

Nice piece of bodark! Don't leave that unattended if I'm around ... lol!

[Mike Phelps]

Hey Jim,

The eye and hand coordination system is a marvelous thing. The whole thing of centering the tool and maul is all taken care of deep between our ears somehow. All hominids can do it, no conscious thinking required. In fact the less thinking the better. The broad flat surface of mallets and hammers only serve to give you a false sense of confidence. Strike a bit off center and the tool goes flying regardless of the size or shape of the head.

The first time I banged a thumb and a nail went flying deep in the last century, my GrandPa pointed to the top of the nail and said, keep your eye here, it works. Everytime it's happened since it was because I was looking at the tip of nail, chisel, punch, tool and not the top.

The main advantage of mauls over mallets is a lower center of gravity. Take a maul and mallet of the same weight and imagine a line running through the handle and out the head. The maul's working surface is much closer to this center line than the mallet's.

[SmilinJim]

Thanks Mike

Knew if I thought too hard I'd confuse the issue. Sorta figured it was one of those things that just ran on autopilot.

One more question. Is the weight ratio? about the same. Lighter maul for heavier mallet, or is weight a more personal taste?

Jim

[sheathmaker]

The natural hand eye cordination is a fact! It just happens. The use of a maul is subject to a very short learning curve, but once you become comfortable then going back to a mallet style is probably not going to happen. I use a 12OZ. for the lighter tooling and a 26OZ for the heavier impressions and a 48OZ for concho cutting, maker's stamp and other broad faced stmaps, and also setting copper rivets. Barry King has a good selection of high quality mauls in various weights, although the only one of his I own is the 48OZ. I am very partial to the poly mauls. I've had a few in rawhide, but they show wear and tear much more rapidly.

Paul

Edited October 28, 2007 by sheathmaker

[Mike Phelps]

It's probably a matter of personal taste. The tools I had when I started were the lightweight wooden and rawhide mallets but they aren't very efficient when your trying to tool heavy strap grade leather and punch holes and slits through it. After wasting a bunch of time and money on different tools finally settled with 2 & 3 pound mauls filling most every need at the bench.

[GampasShop]

I will confess, I have been doing leather and wood work for many years. I had never used a maul before. I was kind of thinking like SmilinJim. On the woodworking forum they kept saying how easy a maul was to use.

I took a chance and turned these down and gave them a try. All the doubt soon leaves you once you try one. I am going to make another one the same size as the smaller one in the pics, but am going to drill it out and add some lead in head. I know these arent going to last long as in just a little bit of using them on the "Clutch Purse", the small diameter of the leather tools sure bangs up the maul.

[Rawhide]

I can't explain it, but a maul will feel natural almost immediately. I have several types of mallets's mauls. I have two rawhide mallets 9 and 11 oz., a 1 lb poly mallet Al Stohlman mallet, a 1 lb Barry King poly maul, and a 2 lb Al Stohlman rawhide maul.

I use the Barry King maul 90 percent of the time. I use the 2 lb maul for cutting strap ends, setting rivets, etc...

Every now and then I use the others, but I prefer the Barry King maul, hands down.

Hope this helps.

Marlon

[Billsotx]

That polymer has to be available somewhere if you're really in to making your own. I have a lead filled maul like you mentioned and I like it a lot. I'm going to try wrapping it with a thin piece of rawhide and see if that stops the tools from pecking away at it. Just thinking and reaping the benefit of all y'all's ideas. Glad Jo invited up to her place and thanks to everyone else for jumpin' in.

[ghstrydr164]

I started with a mallet but picked up this Berry King 16oz. maul 15 years ago and it makes things easier and faster for me. No matter what you use it helps to keep the heads of stamps square. I make all of my heads square for a larger striking surface. If your stamp heads are domed I would recommend squaring them off and you will notice a vast difference.

Cyrus

Edited October 29, 2007 by ghstrydr164