I slept on it and

[Rahere]

Any of you own a fencepost thumper? One of those 8" diameter tubes with a plate welded over the end and handles on the side, drives a post like butter?
Now scale it down. Say 1cm diameter, 5cm long, no handles (OK, you could embed it in a malleable thermoplastic to fit in a clenched hand precisely, with a thumb over the top).
And now you've got rid of the problem of unpredictable thrust when you use it on a punch. Simply plug the end of a tube, then thread it and add a knurled cap with a rubber shock pad?

Dunno what to call it, but you can't patent it 'cos I said it here first!

[battlemunky]

How would you use it? Pick it up and drop it down each time? I'm trying to think of how it'd work for beveling. I could see it for a one hit stamp perhaps but I've gotten good with just repetition on those.

Springload it like a  center punch. (R) <---my turn :-P

[Rahere]

Fix the leather, one hand on the stamp, main hand thumping it with the thumb on top. The realisation is it gives far finer control than a mallet putting sideways vectors into the head of the stamp - and you can aways do that. More importantly, you can get a faster hit rate. The biggest issue's the variable size of chisel shaft, I think 7mm should do it, making for an M10 tube.

[Retswerb]

My wrist hurts just thinking of using it, if I’m picturing it right. Without the weight of the mallet your arm and wrist would have to do all the work. Am I missing something?

[chuck123wapati]

10 hours ago, Rahere said:

Any of you own a fencepost thumper? One of those 8" diameter tubes with a plate welded over the end and handles on the side, drives a post like butter?
Now scale it down. Say 1cm diameter, 5cm long, no handles (OK, you could embed it in a malleable thermoplastic to fit in a clenched hand precisely, with a thumb over the top).
And now you've got rid of the problem of unpredictable thrust when you use it on a punch. Simply plug the end of a tube, then thread it and add a knurled cap with a rubber shock pad?

Dunno what to call it, but you can't patent it 'cos I said it here first!

What I do when I think of these things. Go for it, build it and give it a try!

[Rahere]

Exactly. But don't keep it to yourself, this is a community and we pay back.

[Sanch]

Hmmm. Slide hammer....

[DrmCa]

I use a press instead. No hammering.

[Sanch]

22 hours ago, DrmCa said:

I use a press instead. No hammering.

For punching holes sure I get that as well as one time impressions on cased leather. 

[MikeRock]

I like the idea Sanch has, make a slide hammer out of it.  Slip over tool, line up and hammer.  Two or three different weight hammers.