The VERITAS mallet
has replaceable wooden faces that you can make using a
hole saw. Small ridges cast into the head hold the
wooden faces in place. The Garland hammer features a
heavy cast-iron head that can hold a variety of striking
faces. Simple loosen the nut below the head and the jaws
open. For woodworking, I like the traditional faces made
from water buffalo hide, though the nylon or urethane
faces would also be useful. |
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I have two favorites.
These tools are such excellent gentle giants that I use
them in my workaday furniture building, too.
Exhibit A is the split-head hammer from Garland
Manufacturing. This hammer is made in Saco, Maine,
and is a serious piece of old-school engineering.
The head is cast iron and unscrews to accept a variety
of hammer faces, including water buffalo rawhide,
urethane, nylon and copper. My hammer has rawhide
in both faces, but you can mix and match as your work
commands. This hammer comes in five sizes (from a
1-1/4” diameter face on up to a 2-3/4”-diameter face)
and can weigh between 1-1/2 lbs. up to a wrist-breaking
6-1/2 lbs.
The rawhide refuses to mark
the work, and the cast iron behind it bends most things
to its will. The hammers range in price from $32 to
almost $76, a small price to pay for ultimate power.
A more refined and genteel
hammer is the VERITAS Cabinetmaker’s Mallet. This
$25 mallet has an 18-ounce cast brass head and its faces
are two replaceable wooden inserts that measure 1-1/2”
in diameter. Though it doesn’t have the authority
of the Garland hammer, the VERITAS is well made and a
bit more versatile. The striking faces are angled
so that the face always strikes your tool at 90°, which
reduces glancing blows and increases your accuracy.
I use this mallet for striking chisels as much as I do
to assemble and disassemble joints. |
