Walling Hammer?

Re: Walling Hammer?

Jim in Burlington Ontario

>Stone mason supply or Mine supply house will have them. Brick and stone yard supply places close by might have them in stock.

Try Trow&Holden or Granite City

Bob Hackett

>

Why a walling hammer? *LINK*

Cooper Suter

>What will it do that a heavy masons hammer will not do?

Other than be English that is.

I found this place out of Chicago;


Hammersource

OK, Coop

Bill Houghton, Sebastopol, CA

>What's a motor pick? Did they actually develop a hammering tool suitable for the correct treatment of old air-cooled VW motors?

Bill, dumb enough to own a VW bus twice in his life

Re: Why a walling hammer?

Erik S. Friis, wish I was in Dodge!

>I'm reading a book entitled "A Guide to Dry Stone Walling" or something similar and it is written by a fellow from the UK. Book recommended a walling hammer. I have a brick hammer -- seems that the walling hammer has a bit more heft. Just thought I'd try it with the tool they recommend. Funny that they're so hard to find in the US...I wonder what's commonly used here...

"I wonder what's commonly used here".....

Cooper Suter

>....concrete, block(CMU's), brick, wood, chainlink, barbed-wire, electric fence, invisible fences, etc.

In general, we're not a country of stone walls, at least not like the English have been. If there isn't the need for the work, the tool's gonna be uncommon.

I see people that do work stone, using brick hammers, cross peins, drilling hammers w/chisels, power tools, what evers available.

Coop

Re: OK, Coop

Cooper Suter

>I think you dropped an "r" on that one Bill, time to go back to Henry Higgins for a refresher.

That'd be a "mortor" pick, I'm guessing an Englishy spelling of mortar.

Coop

Re: Why a walling hammer?

Jim in Burlington Ontario

>They are a super common item here in Canada I really didn't think you'd have a hard time finding one. If you still don't have any luck let me know and I'll pop over to the stoneyard it's only a 5 min drive. I'm pretty sure they come from 30" handled model on thru to about 2lbs.

Thanks Jim...

Erik S. Friis, back in Dodge

>I'm striking out here and in the UK. Whitehouse in the UK I believe was the primary manufacturer and it has gone out of business. HammerSource here in the US had some stock, but it was all sent to a group in Canada fairly recently. Here is a pic of the hammer. I believe it's a 40 oz. head. Thanks for any help with this!

Here's the pic... 

Erik S. Friis, back in Dodge

>

Re: "I wonder what's commonly used here".....

Dave Anderson Chester, NH

>Well Coop, you might not have many dry or mortared stone walls out there in the Midwest, but here in New England they are everywhere. The best crop to come out of farmers fields for over 380 years has always been granite.

As for a walling hammer, I've never used one when shaping or cutting stone for my walls. I have always used my masons hammer or if the rock was large I used a short handled 3 lb sledge and a chisel. YMMV if you are in an area with rock like limestone, shale, slate, or sandstone. Those respond better to just a hammer than pieces of gneiss or granite which are much harder.

Walling Hammer Update *LINK*

Erik S. Friis, back in Dodge

>Well it seems that wallings hammers are a lot more elusive than one would expect. I finally tried calling the Dry Stone Walling Association of Great Britain and was surprised to receive a phone call back later in the afternoon (fairly late in England) and I spoke to a very nice fellow named David Griffiths who is the branch secretary of the Otley and Yorkshire Dales branch. He told me that they use walling hammers made in Shetland which are quite good and gave me the phone # of a guy that acts as a retailer in England. He also provided a lot of other helpful info including an invite to take a course with him next time I'm in the UK.

Trow & Holden it seems also make some very high quality tools, so I may invest in one of them as well as they're made here in VT.

The book I'm reading is called "A Guide to Dry Stone Walling" by Andy Radford and it's quite a good book. I believe Mr. Radford is from the UK as it discusses various dry wall building techniques that have been used in England and surrounds for centuries.

One of the big manufacturers of walling hammers in the UK, I believe that is/was based in Sheffield, is called Whitehouse. But they've either discontinued this hammer or have gone out of business -- still trying to get some more info on this. If any of our UK friends could shed some light on this I would appreciate it.

I've include a link to DSWA Otley & Yorkshire Dales Branch.


DSWA Otley & Yorkshire Dales Branch

I'll pop over

Jim in Burlington Ontario

>In the morning and post what's avaliable.

Re: Walling Hammer Update

Todd O. Cronkhite Maine Native in FL. Exile :~(

>Erik, you planning on doing some stone work? What you got in mind?

Todd O.

Re: Walling Hammer Update

Erik S. Friis, wish I was in Dodge!

>Hi Todd, Started doing some stone work with a slate tile floor in my kitchen with glass tile inlay. Bought a Target wet saw and enjoyed cutting stone very much. My wife and I priced out a retaining wall at the new house and they told us $30,000 -- I almost choked!! Since I seem to enjoy working with natural stone as well as wood, I thought I'd study up on dry stone wall and it's quite interesting. Additionally most of the stone walls built by landscapers around here don't seem to be made anywhere as well as what I've been reading up on. Now, if only I had some time.....;-)

It's not that tough

Frank D. in Montreal

>You just need a good back! I hung around with a mason in France for a few weeks, he was working at my friends' place so I helped him out a little. He redid several huge walls in their 16th century water mill, and made some openings for windows and doors with only a 2-foot level, a plumb line, a small sledge hammer and a cold chisel. The only power tool he had was an electric dump wagon to carry the stones around. I was stunned at his skill.

Here's a dry wall that I made about 3 or 4 years ago, it took me 80 hours to build. The back yard looks really crappy, this is right at the end of winter, and I had just finished dovetailing the grass, but there are so many plants now that you can hardly see the wall anymore...

After...

Frank D. in Montreal

>Sorry but this one looks a lot better, even if we don't see the wall as much...

"dovetailing the grass"=hand tool content

Jack Guzman from Maine

>I'm a landscaping dummy.Excuse my ignorance but how do you dovetail grass?I've never heard the term before.---Jack

May not be appropriate for this forum

Bob Hackett

>It involves a gas powered router and a REALLY large jig.;^)

MB

Nice try Bob

Frank D. in Montreal

>But all you need is a 5 TPI rip saw. I do the tails first. Start by cutting the grass that will survive, lay it, then trace the pins on the grass that will die and cut them. With a little practice you can just eyeball it (for those who didn't notice my hand cut dovetails, they are in the first pic, in the shade in front of the wall).

Frank

Would the Japanese style saws work better?

Eric Hedberg

>Probably something in the Lee Valley catalog for a magnetic guide/fixture for the less confident. Eric (Who prefers to use a rabbit on his grass)

Do you use a rabbit plane?

Bill Houghton, Sebastopol, CA

>or fancy?

Well...

Eric Hedberg

>generally I try to rout the rabbits out but inevitably I end up going back and trimming them up a hare or two. Eric (Who saw buck on his neighborhood city street. Life in St. Paul, Minnesota is always pun)

When did Papa Smurf .....

Cooper Suter

>.....add the second floor to his house? Nice color selection!

Around here, this color house is usually complimented by white marble chip flower beds, pink flamingo's, and bathtub Maddona shrines, the natural stone is a nice contrast. ;-)

Coop