Veritas Brass Headed Mallet

Re: Veritas Brass Headed Mallet

Bill Houghton, Sebastopol, CA

>Continued proximity of that mallet to your Witherby chilsels will cause untold damage to the chisels. You must act quickly to protect them. The best approach is to send them as far across the Pacific as you reasonably can; ping me offline, and I'll send you my address.

I have no idea, and have wondered about that myself -- brass may be softer than steel, but it's still metal -- and will be interested to hear what others say.

Re: Veritas Brass Headed Mallet

Derek Cohen (in Perth, Australia)

>"You must act quickly to protect them. The best approach is to send them as far across the Pacific as you reasonably can.."

Bill, your RIGHT! BUT before I can do so, I have a responsibility to make sure they (the Witherbys) go to a nurturing home. Can you convince me that you do not beat your chisels unreasonably, that you always feed your timber totes and handles with oil or wax three times each day, that you will play with them and give them your undivided attention when they are around, that you will not favour one over the other and promote sibling rivalry, and that you will come to their aid if they slip and fall?

Best regards from Perth

Derek

Your standards are high, Derek

Bill Houghton, Sebastopol, CA

>...but I'd do my best. I'd even consider always wearing my boots in the shop, so I could catch a chisel with a foot if it fell off the bench.

Re: Veritas Brass Headed Mallet

Scott Burr in Ben Lomond CA

>Humm... I don't think the mallet will do any harm to the Iyori's. They are made to be struck with metal hammers. This being, you would mar the mallet before the chisels. I can't comment on the Witherbys, except...I know I'd take better care of them than Bill;).

Re: Veritas Brass Headed Mallet

Bob Hackett

>I`d worry more about dinging the mallet.The wood handle would damage before the working end of the chisel would.I`d say you have to replace the handles before you did any damage to the chisels themselves.That being said,I use one of the urethane mallets offered by Wood is Good and am very happy with it.It may not look as snazzy,but I can`t fault the performance.

Mainely,Bob

:) :) :)

Derek Cohen (in Perth, Australia)

>

I wonder what hammers most use when ...

Derek Cohen (in Perth, Australia)

>... chiseling dovetails and mortices, or setting plane blades?

For years I have always made my own mallets, large and small. Usually out of Jarrah scraps, since this is both plentiful around here and is a pretty dense timber. Still, they get chewed up and need to be replaced. Easier to replace the mallet than the chisel handle or risk mushrooming the end of a blade. I did use a 225 gm Japanese hammer for a while (wonderful balance) but could see these beginning to cause this type of damage. This new Veritas mallet is just so pretty and comfortable. It is meant to be used. But is was an impulse buy and I did not think it through. I would love to use it. Perhaps I need to do so discriminatingly?

Regards from Perth

Derek

Re: I wonder what hammers most use when ...

joel

>Hooped Japanese chisels are supposed to be struck with a steel hammer. THe hammer mushrooms the top of the chisel and the hoop prevents the mushrooming from spreading and the handle splitting.

The important thing is setting hoops the hoops correctly - then you get a nice stable end of the chisel that can be hit with steel hammers forever with no ill effect.

(note for average size work I would think a 225 gram steel hammer a little on the light side. I use a 375 and routinely whale away on hard wood.)

Sacrificing something

Bob Hackett

>I think you`ve hit it when you mentioned deformation.Something has to give under all that heavy beating.My choice has been to either resign myself to making new handles periodicly(why do you think there were replacement handles available in such a wide variety years ago)or turn up new mallets.I use socket chisels for all my chopping work,I use the urethane mallet for most of this type work.I find it to be more user friendly and it`s not as abusive to the tools as metal is.For the odd times when a more controled strike is needed(adjusting plane irons comes to mind)I use a jewelers mallet.Mine came with replaceable heads(brass and nylon)and it`s easy to turn replacements if you own a lathe.I`ve used brass,aluminum,and various wood types as replacements.

I`ve thought about making a mallet along the lines of the one you have except making the brass head relaceable,it would be attached by a stud threaded into the handle .I like the idea of being able to hold the mallet so you can use the top of the head to strike and have the handle in line with the swing.I`ve also seen these mallets offered in ductile iron and bronze,Calvos(sp)is one company that offers them.

Mainely,Bob

Re: Veritas Brass Headed Mallet

GolfSteve in Calgary

>I really like this mallet for woodcarving work and for chopping out the waste when dovetailing. It's not big or heavy enough for use with mortise chisels.

The brass mallet will of course eventually mushroom the wood handles of your chisels. Not much you can do about that.

Regarding using this mallet with Japanese chisels, the steel hoop will mar the face of the mallet unless the wood has completely mushroomed over the hoop. I haven't used my chisels enough for this to have happened yet, so my brass mallet gets dinged up by the chisel hoop. I don't pound very hard on my Japanese chisels so this isn't a big problem (they are mostly used for dovetailing).

I have a larger turned mallet, made out of Australian oak, that I use with my Sorby mortising chisels (they have a steel hoop also). The moritising chisels have made a mess of the face of my mallet. Next time I'll make or buy a mallet that uses end-grain as the working face.

Re: Veritas Brass Headed Mallet

Pam Niedermayer - Austin, TX

>I use this type mallet with small and medium carving chisels, works just fine, wonderful feel, but it's not like I pound all that hard. I suspect that over time the handles may get munged a bit.

Pam

Confession of impurity

Bill Houghton, Sebastopol, CA

>I use a 2 lb deadblow mallet, plastic encasing some sort of handle and head, $3 at Christmastime (so cheap I bought two) from Horrible Fright, officially Harbor Freight, possibly not a chain you can find in Oz.

It's ugly as homemade sin, but works great. So far, I haven't seen any sign that it will ever wear out.

I hear ya

Wiley Horne--Glendora CA

>Bill,

Maybe we ought to have a WoodCentral funky hammer contest, and the winner gets to buy a round. My entrant is a Vaughn 12 oz. 'Supersteel'. My wife hasn't missed it yet from her pile o' tools. Has a steel head with two polls: It's got a bright yellow way-hard plastic cap over one poll, and hard red rubber covering the other. That yellow plastic end is real good for striking Japanese, C&W, Knight, and other wooden plane bodies--for backing the blade out and seating the wedge.

For hooped Japanese chisels, I use a 13 oz. Japanese barrel shaped hammer, or an ordinary 16 oz. clawhammer if it's closer to where I'm standing. Japanese octagon shaped hammer for steel-on-iron or steel-on-steel, like setting blades and chipbreakers. If the blade is mushrooming, it's too tight a fit.

Wiley

Wiley