# Nice chisel mallet in lidl



## MarkDennehy (4 Jun 2018)

If you’re on the lookout for a nice chisel mallet which can also be used for knocking joints together: 







Colours designate hardness from blue (soft) up to white (hardest). Comes in a stupid case, but the handle’s hickory, the weight isn’t bad, and it’s cheap (€14) enough compared to the “real thing”. Was using it for some dovetailing this evening, it's not too shabby. Think I prefer the carvers' mallets for actual carving, but this holds its own against the deadblow softface quite well and cost a few quid less than that did.


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## ED65 (5 Jun 2018)

Had a look at these in a new Lidl we popped into yesterday. Very posh build, with glulam beams supporting the roof! Anyway, agree it's a great bit of kit for a reasonable price. 

But every one I looked at had either the wrong grain orientation in the handle (including some where it was fully at right angles to the way you want it) or the wood was hickory heartwood. For light duties neither thing is a dealbreaker but for a long service life, and comfort in use, these are things to be fussy about so I think it's worth potential buyers sorting through them and picking the best.


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## MarkDennehy (5 Jun 2018)

Hard to pick through them because of the box (I wonder if that's the point of it? ) and the cardboard sleeve around it though. 
Oh well, if I ever hit it hard enough to snap the handle I can repair it. Assuming I still care about woodworking, given how annoyed I'd have to be to be belting something that hard (I'm picturing myself standing in the shed yelling "I'm mad as hell and I'm not gonna take it anymore" and then belting the bejaysus out of everything in reach with the hammer (which in my shed would be everything including all four walls and the roof...)).


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## Sheffield Tony (5 Jun 2018)

It looks like a kid's toy with the primary colours and shapes. Is that not the point of the box, finding the right sized / shaped hole for each piece ?

I think I'll stick with a nice simple wooden mallet thanks.


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## MarkDennehy (5 Jun 2018)

You may or may not have discovered the original cause for buying it while I was doing the weekly shop with the six-year-old in tow.

I couldn't possibly comment.

(It's still a nice hammer though. And I'm not giving up my lignum vitae mallet either  )


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## custard (5 Jun 2018)

You got a good buy there Mark.

Something similar lives pretty much permanently on my bench.





The "hard" end is great for chisel work, and can assemble furniture without marking as long as you're tapping on end grain, while the "soft" end is ideal for knocking furniture apart after test assembly and for assembling on long grain. It means instead of two or three different tools on my bench there's just the one. For example that was the only hammer I used to make this mitred dovetail,










So it served to chop out the waste in 30mm thick hardwood, make delicate paring cuts, make the six or seven test assemblies needed for a mitred dovetail, and also disassemble as required without bruising.

It's the perfect all rounder!


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## large red (7 Jun 2018)

Got one today, great value I love the instructions, they give a suggested use for each head, white (the hardest) lists road construction as one of its uses. I'm going to build a road in my back garden this very afternoon, it will have to be a A road I don't have the room for hard shoulders.


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## Newbie_Neil (7 Jun 2018)

custard":1fv1bgf5 said:


> So it served to chop out the waste in 30mm thick hardwood, make delicate paring cuts, make the six or seven test assemblies needed for a mitred dovetail, and also disassemble as required without bruising.
> 
> It's the perfect all rounder!



Yes, I have found the Thor mallet to be excellent. (hammer) 

Neil


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## ED65 (7 Jun 2018)

MarkDennehy":1w46nure said:


> Hard to pick through them because of the box (I wonder if that's the point of it? ) and the cardboard sleeve around it though. .


I don't let a little thing like cardboard and a bit of sticky-backed plastic get in the way of a proper look-see. And anyway down here in God's own country there's usually at least one opened before I get there.

I was in another branch yesterday and both of the remaining hammers had their packaging ripped open (literally). Both handles were sapwood and one of them even had grain running nearly in the right direction  



MarkDennehy":1w46nure said:


> Oh well, if I ever hit it hard enough to snap the handle I can repair it. Assuming I still care about woodworking, given how annoyed I'd have to be to be belting something that hard (I'm picturing myself standing in the shed yelling "I'm mad as hell and I'm not gonna take it anymore" and then belting the bejaysus out of everything in reach with the hammer (which in my shed would be everything including all four walls and the roof...))


 :lol: 

Humour aside, lots of little taps can eventually equal a few full-arm whacks. And anyone could make a mistake and have an overstrike, which neither 90° grain or heartwood deal with as well as their opposites.


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