Hammers & Hooped Chisels

[cputnam]

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?

[bandit571]

7 oz Riveting Hammer...used by Tinsmiths 

   

BTW: also makes a very good hammer for very small nails.   Cross pean end  save smashed thumbs...

[Derek Cohen]

For Japanese hooped chisels I either use a 225 gm (8 oz) steel gennou ...



The other gennou is 375gm (13 oz), which is reserved for the harder woods.

.. or an 18 oz UHMW-faced mallet, which can do it all - bench or mortice chisels ...



Regards from Perth

Derek

[Admiral]

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 view wood mallets as consumables; most of mine are shop made of hard maple and cherry scrap cutoffs where I've glued them together into panels, jointed the panel and put through the planer.  Then I size them into strips and glue them together into an appropriately sized block, drill a hole, turn a handle and Bob's your uncle.  They last remarkably long, I've had one for 6 years or so, never split apart, and of course the end grain is the working surface.  Next go around I'm going to laminate a larger block and turn a carver's mallet, we'll see how that works...

Great use for those long strips of hardwood scrap.

[Stwood_]

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

[adamcherubini]

In the woodshop, I use carvers' mallets to drive chisels and just about everything else. I have 2, large and small, and have had them for probably 15 years. I don't like hooped chisels in general because I typically push chisels with my palm and I find the hooped models' butt ends are too small. They are also hard on mallets. The smaller mallet I sometimes hold in my fist like a lump hammer. In those instances I use the end grain of the mallet (top or bottom). Machinists have these. I don't think a lump hammer has a handle. I think it's just a lump of metal, often brass or lead that machinists use to increase the force of a fist pound. But I'm out of the loop with the new Schwarz lexicon.

Outside the shop, I use dead blows exclusively for (carpentry) chisels. I think I would recommend them for every woodworker. I have several, but my favorite is a Stanley compocast slimline 20oz. Snap On are nicer and they make a slim line head, but I don't have one.

Here's my concern - The force generated by a steel hammer on a chisel is sufficient to create enough shock energy to break a chisel's edge in soft material. I think this is why people tried to install crush washers or they talk about laminated chisel advantages. I think a sharp shiock is the enemy to any edge tool.

Last, if you are hitting any chisel hard enough to destroy a wooden mallet, or wreck its butt end, I think you are doing something wrong. I think there are a lot of good woodworkers who are confused about how chisels work (I'm confused about how routers work, so....). I've seen a lot of guys I felt were good woodworkers bash on chisels. Ditto for the guys wailing on mortise chisels then complaining about their steel or strength of their workbenches! If you are hitting something that hard, I feel you are doing something wrong or....at least....there is another way to do that job.

[David Charlesworth]

I have been using a 375 gram Japanese, barrel shaped hammer, to tap my L-N chisels for many years.

No perceptible damage.

The hammer feels much more positive and so much less clumsy than a mallet.

David Charlesworth

[Handplanesandmore]

I use carver's (round) mallets, and sometimes a genno for all my chopping tasks. all I can say is that all these talks about hammers, edges, sharpening, etc. are pretty academic and bear only a very small practical significance. Use something you feel comfortable with...not something the big shots try to convince you to. I have both cheap and fancy (pricey) tools.....I can deliver the same pristine results with either of them. In fact, I use the cheapos more often than the prettier ones.

"Sharpen often and hone at a higher angle" would be more than good enough for any average woodworker. If you are a vendor...that could be a different story.

Simon

[adamcherubini]

If we are talking about user issues, I like the carvers mallets because I don't have to think about where the head is or worry about hitting my hand. I don't even look at it. I don't think I could do that with a hammer like tool.

[bandit571]

Hammers....see how many you can find in the following photos..

   

   
Well...a mallet IS a hammer..

   
and..IF you are into "War Clubs"...

   
24 oz, waffle face....

Pulled inventory, today....of all the "extra" tools that are NOT in the shop....