I have recently purchased some Japanese bench chisels “Oire Nomi”and I’m curious if most people use the Japanese hammers, or wooden mallets.
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I have a Japanese chisel hammer but do not like to use it. I don't like the balance. Instead, I use an English made hammer that has both a rubber face and a hard nylon face. The nylon face transmits the impact well and I really like the feel of the hammer. The hard rubber side can be used to assemble parts and does not leave dents. It is a Thorex 712 my go to hammer for lots of things.
I use the Thorex as well. Had a mild panic this weekend as I couldn’t find it hanging its normal spot. Didn’t realize how attached I became to that hammer. For sure my favoite. I found it about 10 minutes later. I had it packed in my carving bag as I used it in a recent carving class.
Thank you I appreciate the input.
The physics of hitting a wooden-handled tool with a mallet, beetle or some other hand-held lump has always remained a bit of a mystery to me. I can grasp the basic physics of using the increased momentum of a mallet to drive a cutting edge harder into the wood but the details of how the force is transmitted from the hit-end of the tool to that cutting edge - I'd like to understand more.
There's some additional understanding from looking at hammer-on-nail physics - from considering a titanium hammer rather than a steel hammer, for example but ......
The usual recommendation of carvers and other hand tooled woodworkers seems to be that wooden tool handles (even when bound by a steel ferrule) should never be hit with a metal implement. The implication (always without any detail, though) is that the relative resilience of the two (metal to wood) will see the more resilient steel hammer destroy the wooden handle-end faster than will blows from a more equitable wood mallet on a wood tool handle.
There's also the "Wood-Is-Good" brand of round carver's mallet that comes wrapped in a tough urethane, intended to reduce the damage to a wood handle-end even more. Yet using such a mallet (of the correct weight, at least) seems to impart plenty of force to the cutting edge.
Although .... in recently using such a urethane-wrapped mallet for whacking large gouges into green wood whilst making bowls, I have noticed it takes a bit more effort than it does with a similar plain wooden mallet. But it also allows a more gradated application of force to a mallet blow, between tap & full-whack. And the chisel handle-ends really do seem not to get abraded as much.
Is there a physicist about this place who can say more about the detail of the forces and their transmission between mallets and tool handles of various materials? It would be interesting to understand theoretically the by-experience finding that wooden (and perhaps urethane-wrapped) mallets are better than steel for hitting wooden tool handles.
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I've tried just about every kind of whacking instrument for chisels. For the longest time, I found a dead-blow hammer works very well. However, since purchasing a bronze casting of the mallet seen in the Studley tool box with a white oak insert, that is now my favorite. it doesn't work better than the deadblow hammer, but it's an elegant tool and a joy to use (vs a flourescent orange plasticy thing).
I favor a heavy mallet with a large striking surface. If you choke up on it, you can regulate how hard you hit the chisel. and being heavy, I don't have to swing as hard, and it feels more controlled. I've also been schooled in the idea of not using a metal hammer on chisels, but I think there are many fine woodworkers who use the purpose build, "soft" hammers for this task. I will say that the striking surface on all my chisels are pretty much pristine, despite years of use.
So these are the hammer's that you use on your Japanese chisel's ?
Western chisels. I only have a couple of Japanese chisels (which I don't use much), but the mechanics of Japanese vs Western chisels are the same.
Oire nomi have a hoop that should be properly set which leaves you with a striking surface that has been slightly mushroomed around the hoop. This leads to a very nice user experience. The striking surface doesn’t degrade much properly set. A tsuki nomi is for paring cuts only and doesn’t have the hoop.
You can really wail on a properly set up chisel. I prefer this combo in most situations. The type of hammer doesn’t matter much but I do typically use a 350gram “genno”.
If using my 720s I would always use a mallet. The advantage of a round mallet is that a glancing blow doesn’t foul quite as bad, at least in theory, so great for carving.
I don’t like a rubber/plastic mallet for anything. I just grab a chunk of scrap and bang on that for assembly.
Thank you chuck I appreciate your response.
A bit of reading in the Chris Pye book "Woodcarving Tools, Materials& Equipment" reveals the following advice from Mr P:
Cabinet-making style chiselling with a mallet, such as making a mortise with a mortise chisel, works best with a flat-faced mallet, the flat face being end grain of a dense wood such as beech. He opines that the flat face means less chance of a glancing blow, which is bad for chiselling a straight section as it'll deflect the chisel from its intended path.
Hmmmmm.
Another opinion offered is that the rounded faces of a mallet used for carving works as the force of the blow often needs to be other than in a direct line with the chisel when carving; and the mallet is regarded as a sacrificial item, so the carver's mallet is designed so that long grain hits the chisel end rather than end grain. As this is "softer" than the "harder" end grain of a square-head mallet, the mallet abrades rather than the chisel handle.
Another design input to the carver's chisel, he points out, is that it's shape allows the head to be grasped by the hand, rather than the handle, which effectively gives the carver a two-weight chisel - heavy when used via the handle and light when used by the head.
Although he doesn't express a definitive justification, he also implies that mallets made of heavier stuff such as lignum vitae heartwood are good mostly because they give a higher mallet-weight in smaller-size mallets than those of equal weight made of other woods. But he also mentions that lignum vitae is tougher and lasts longer - which seems to be in contradiction to the "use softer side grain to sacrifice mallet rather than chisel-handle" point.
Alas, nothing much about using steel hammers as a mallet for woodwork, although there is a mention of "mild steel" and a "a lead alloy" being used in mallets, although these seem to be for stone rather than wood carving.
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Personally I'd like to understand the detail of what happens when mallets of various materials hit chisel handles of various materials - the relative abrasion rates; and force-absorption rates (including any losses in things like urethane and nylon compared to wood and steel). Perhaps FWW could arrange a-one o' them articles in which a technical chap measures such things, a bit like those articles testing the strength of various joints or the rates that various sandpapers and sanding machines remove wood?
David, Merry Christmas!
My view is the same as that of Chris Pye - round carver's mallets are not a good design for chisels. It is not just the desire to avoid a glancing blow, but a flat face also concentrates the impact, and a hard hammer head maximises the force. Rubber or silicon wrapped carver's mallets are self-defeating, absorbing much of the energy and causing one to strike harder than necessary.
The Japanese gennou is a small hammer, concentrating the force, preferably 225 gms for oire nomi when chopping dovetails or detail work, and 375 gms when mortising.
Understand that the oire nomi and a gennou are a team. Oire nomi are struck for precision. Position the chisel and use the gennou to create just enough force for the task.
Two of my gennous below, Tenryu Tsuchime Shikaku 225/325 gm.
Regards from Perth
Derek
Derek Thank you for the response, it's nice to hear from someone in detail on Japanese chisels and hammers. I have purchased a Dai Dogyu 300g for starters. The chisels are the Fujikawa Professional Oire Nomi's, hopefully I made a good choice.
Happy New Year, Derek!
Pretty hammers, them. I do have one-such (n0t as posh as yourn) but found myself using it not on chisels but for some of the more usual WW hammer tasks such as knocking in pins, nails, dowels and so forth. It's also a nice thing to use on punches and other metal tooling needing a lighter knock than a whack to a mortise chisel or a large gouge hollowing out a shrink pot.
I can see that such Japanese hammers are designed and made as a pair to go with Japanese chisels but to my Western experience they seem to have a rather small head, requiring a perfect accuracy when swinging the hammer to connect with the chisel handle. A large flat face mallet seems more forgiving of an imperfect aim, especially when whacking a mortise chisel.
I read that the Japanese hammers of the kind you show in the pic have a hardened face but with the inner metal body left soft, supposedly to deaden the harsher vibrations that might otherwise soon tire the hand gripping the hammer handle. Is that your experience? I know that hammering nails with a standard steel claw or similar Western hammer can soon tire one's paw from the vibrations coming out of the shaft.
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Chris Pye has a couple of videos about mallets for carving. The subject matter and info in them doesn't answer the OP's question but is interesting in a peripheral way, concerning mallet weights, how to swing them (and hold the receiving chisel) and so forth.
https://youtu.be/EKUgl_lerwU
https://youtu.be/LAbkwZJ9fHc
One point made is that the urethane-clad mallets (perhaps like those soft-core Japanese hammers) deadens damaging vibrations that can make one's hand ache and perhaps even suffer damage. I must say that I find that to be true, even comparing such a urethane-clad mallet with a bare-wood mallet albeit one made of rock 'ard ekki.
Another point made in the vids is that metal-head mallets, such as those made of brass or soft iron, are meant for precise tapping blows rather than the full swing&bang blows of something like mortising. Tapping means less force so presumably less damage of the metal on the wooden chisel handle-end.
Currently I have no brass-head type mini-mallet, as Ekki-thump (pictured) now performs the tapping tasks. Ekki is a dense and very tough wood, not unlike old-growth iroko, also full of silica & calcium bits (the white flecks). I turned that wee mallet out of a free chunk given to me long ago by the crane driver at a small local port at which a small cargo ship regularly disgorged exotic African timbers for use by a local business making boat-stuff.
That is a rather sensuous mallet, David. I assume it is for malleting?
There is something positive to be said for the urethane-clad mallets - they are quiet, which is useful when thumping and not wishing to disturb others.
I also have a few mallets for non-hooped chisels. These are faced with UHMW, which has the advantage of adsorbing the noise and non-marring, but still being hard enough to provide feedback (let you know how much energy has been dispatched).
The big mallet is infilled with brass. It's heavy and for mortise chisels and hard wood. The middle one is a modified Veritas cabinetmaker's mallet, and the small one is for lighter work and as a plane hammer.
In building these handles, attention was given to the hand grip.
Regards from Perth
Derek
Dogyu makes a very affordable, quality hammer. Fitting the handle to the head will be necessary but is a quick task. Similar to fitting the hoop on the chisel, just compress the wood with a hammer and then swell the wood with a little water once the handle is reinserted to the head.
Thank you Chuck
So, you need a hammer to be able to use your hammer? That is something like buying a pair of scissors wrapped in polystyrene that requires a pair of scissors to open it!
Like everything else I have probably too many hammers but no Japanese hammers. I've looked at them though and the one that strikes me, so to speak, has a flat end and a slightly convex end. The convex end would be perfect for doing exactly what you are suggesting about setting the hoop and I believe is designed for that purpose. That is, to compress tight jointery before assembly and in theory doesn't require wetting the joined end. The wood will expand on its own. As I've discovered with every axe I ve ever owned that eventually they get left out in the rain. The wood expands and compresses against the metal then dries out leaving a loose axe head. The idea that Japanese chisels and Japanese hammers are designed to be a symbiotic pair makes sense to me.
I looked up that Thorex mentioned above. One day I was in Harbor Freight and picked up a hammer just about like that - at 5 bucks I couldn't resist. It came with 4 interchangeable heads. I do understand about elegant tools and this is not one of those. The thorex is 7 times the cost so I would hope is 7 times better and maybe mine is junk in comparison but I do find myself reaching for it all the time!
Haha, something like that! I guess you could use your teeth or something if no other tools are available ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
I use various striking tools. My main chisel hammer is a steel body home brew made from a shower door handle set and some scrap (far right below). It’s a tapper, not a basher. It works well with my LN bevel edge chisels. A smaller steel version is to the left, and an even smaller version using a solid copper cylindrical head is left of that. Tappers all. If I need to do any bashing I use my Blue Chip chisels with plastic handles and one of the two mallets to the left.