Rawhide mallet. What would they have been used for.

[pgrbff]

Whenever I visit my mum in Venice I try and pop into a toolshop that has been open as long as I remember, possibly mid 60's. They have shelves full of unsold tools from another era and often at bargain prices, which is unusual for Italy.
I bought the 2 mallets below for €7 or £5. They have dozens of them.
By comparison a Fervi, made in china deadblow was €14.
What profession would have used the rawhide mallet?

 

[Ozi]

I inherited from my Dad a double ended mallet, copper one end raw hide the other. It weighs about 5 lbs. Dad was a tool maker and used it for things like driving bearings etc.

A friend of his who had been fought in the desert said they used similar if a field gun got too hot and wouldn't run out after recoiling apparently "a quick smack on the breach and you're ready to be rude to the neighbors again" his words not mine.

Here's hoping you find other uses

 

[Richard_C]

I have a Thor mallet that I bought about 45 years ago, one face copper the other hide. Known to me as Thor Thunderhammer. Good dead weight blows, no rebound from hide face and no or little marking of work. Can be used on metal sheet, bending, flattening etc, and knocking timber joints together or apart. Jewellers use small ones. I bought it initially for its copper face, non sparking if hitting metal (steel on steel can spark) and I was working on the petrol tank on my Hillman Hunter, needed to rotate the "ears" on the level sender unit which was well corroded. The weight and deadness has been invaluable on many thumping jobs since.

 

[sometimewoodworker]

I also have a couple of THOR mallets like that, one copper face was pristine until SWMBO decided it was ok to use as a hammer!!! FFS I have about 8 or 9 steel hammers ranging from 100g to 4kg, but it was there. She did say it wasn’t very good as the nails dented the face.

 

[Tony Zaffuto]

I have a new(ish) rawhide mallet (Garland) that is too hard for assembling, but OK for chisels. Seems it was treated with some sort of finish, making it way to hard. I use an Estwing hammer, one side faced with a nylon tip and the other with soft rubber - love this tool!

 

[ajs]

Remember usings them quite a bit milling during a brief spell as an engineering apprentice - what was then British Aerospace. Oddly enough used for precision alignment in vices or indeed of the vice itself on the machine table. Get them mostly tightened up then judicious tapping with the rawhide mallet to get things squared up to within the last few thou or hundredths of a mm.

 

[Richard_C]

I use an Estwing hammer, one side faced with a nylon tip and the other with soft rubber - love this tool!

I guess all these modern composite heads are better than hide for most uses and that's what I would probably buy now. But, back then not sure we had many choices.

 

[G S Haydon]

Thanks for the heads up on the Estwing, Tony. Looks nice. At work the majority of my chisels are plastic handles or metal capped so I use a claw hammer on them. The handle length looks like a claw hammer, might need to give one a try.

 

[thetyreman]

they are the original soft blow mallets, I have my grandfathers and he was a plumber for 50+ years until he died so it was definitely used in plumbing, but he was alive in a time where we still used lead pipes and they soldered everything together.

 

[Tony Zaffuto]

I want to clarify the rawhide mallet I bought - it seems to have been coated/finished with something like a very hard poly. I have used it, but the finish refuses to give and/or breakdown to vintage rawhide I’ve seen.

T

 

[G S Haydon]

J-G

 

[J-G]

J-G

The idea of using a claw hammer on a chisle of any type is absurd!

 

[Ozi]

I have a Thor mallet that I bought about 45 years ago, one face copper the other hide. Known to me as Thor Thunderhammer. Good dead weight blows, no rebound from hide face and no or little marking of work. Can be used on metal sheet, bending, flattening etc, and knocking timber joints together or apart. Jewellers use small ones. I bought it initially for its copper face, non sparking if hitting metal (steel on steel can spark) and I was working on the petrol tank on my Hillman Hunter, needed to rotate the "ears" on the level sender unit which was well corroded. The weight and deadness has been invaluable on many thumping jobs since.

Glad to hear you named it mine is Edward the Convincer

 

[G S Haydon]

The idea of using a claw hammer on a chisle of any type is absurd!

Get over yourself and be angry faced about something worthwhile! Some are designed for it.

Would you have me destroy a wooden mallet on these? Irwin Marples Soft Grip Chisel Set | Toolstation
Define the issue of using a claw hammer on these?
Some people even use lump hammers on wooden handles!
I use all my delicate chisels with an appropriate mallet.

 

[joshvegas]

one copper face was pristine until SWMBO decided it was ok to use as a hammer

Thos themselves tell you the copper needs to be battered into its final shape before it will setlle down and become hardwearing. Your wife just started the process for you

 

[Keith 66]

Rawhide mallets were & are often used in sheet metal work, When new they are varnished & are quite hard, this softens up with use eventually!

 

[Blackswanwood]

What profession would have used the rawhide mallet?

They are used by trades and professions doing fine metal work such as jewellery and musical instruments.

 

[Phill05]

Hi have a tin in the shed with I think 3 unused hide rounds that fit in the mallet there was also a tin with the copper ends but I sold that on a few years ago, came from a guy that was an experimental Ingineer for BT ( Ingineer was his words not spelling mistake )

 

[pgrbff]

The idea of using a claw hammer on a chisle of any type is absurd!

Not sure it is absurd. I always used my Estwing claw on my splitproof and I still have them, handles intact after 40 years.

 

[J-G]

Get over yourself and be angry faced about something worthwhile! Some are designed for it.

Would you have me destroy a wooden mallet on these? Irwin Marples Soft Grip Chisel Set | Toolstation
Define the issue of using a claw hammer on these?
Some people even use lump hammers on wooden handles!
I use all my delicate chisels with an appropriate mallet.

I'm not questioning the use of a metal hammer per se but a Claw Hammer has a specific target use and has essentially too small a 'face' for use on chisels leading to the potential for personal injury. A Lump Hammer would certainly be a better choice - even a large faced Planishing Hammer might be acceptable.

It's all about the size of the hammer face compared to the target - a nail is very much smaller than the Claw Hammer face, just as a 'Mallet' - or Lump Hammer - is that much larger than a chisle handle.

Th only reason for the was because it is the only negative emoji available and I didn't realy want to get into this discussion - I would have thought that the 'issue' was obvious.