Hammers & Hooped Chisels

[Peter Tremblay]

Speaking of lump hammers, what you use to beat on (strike) hooped chisels?  I have some Sorbys and Narex mortise chisels that have hoops at the top of the handle.  Said hoops leave imprints in a conventional wood mallet and would chew the mallet up in no time if the use continued.  So, for those of you with hooped chisels, what do you use?

I mentioned this in the stropping thread.

I bough a solid stainless steel carvers mallet.  Our beloved Ryan Cathy made it in a high school shop class and then sold it to me.  I love heavy mallets.  

I then took some heavy leather belting and wrapped it around and epoxied it to the head of the mallet to soften the blow.

That is my go-to chisel for a lot of heavy chisel work.

[Bibliophile 13]

My hoops are below the top of the wooden handle.....Mallet never touches them.

Same here.  I think a properly hooped chisel should have wood protruding above the hoop.  It eventually mushrooms over and protects the mallet face from the worst of the damage that a metal hoop would do.

[AHill]

I can see where using a wood mallet on a Japanese chisel might suffer some damage from the hoops, but Narex hoops are set pretty far down from the end of the handle.  A properly set hoop on a Japanese chisel has the wood handle mushroomed out over the hoop, providing some cushion to the mallet.  Traditionally, Japanese chisels are tapped with a metal hammer, though. As well, traditional Japanese woodworking has the user tapping the chisel in multiple, lighter taps vs. the strong whacks we Westerners subject to our chisels.  As far as the Western hooped design goes, if you're having issues with the mallet being damaged by the hoop, you're either striking the chisel head at too oblique an angle, or you need to replace your handle.  I reviewed probably 5 or 6 videos on how to hand cut mortise and tenon joints, and in every single video using a Western hooped chisel, the woodworker used a wooden mallet with a flat striking face.

[Stwood_]

Same here.  I think a properly hooped chisel should have wood protruding above the hoop.  It eventually mushrooms over and protects the mallet face from the worst of the damage that a metal hoop would do.

Exactly.