I keep a few spare hammers in My Red Toolbox. This Workforce hammer cost a few dollars at a nearby Depot and has rarely, if ever, been used.

Experience:

I don’t need to say much about it except that as an employer I find myself lending a hammer to unskilled labor from time to time. Lending tools isn’t a big favorite of mine but when it’s a $7 hammer I have no qualms. I bought 3 hammers for less than $20 and found that one has become my day-to-day 16oz hammer.

This wooden handled 16 oz. Workforce Hammer is just along for the ride as a spare in My Red Toolbox.

Experience:

I went to pick up a new Hart Tool Co. Hickory Hammer only to learn they don’t make them anymore. Wait, this Dead On hammer looks similar… but is it? Not as far as I’m concerned. I like to inspect the grain pattern in my hammer handle. Instead of a classy natural wood finish some Dead On handles are painted black and say ‘Death Stick’ on them. I guess they are marketed toward Punk Rock Carpenters and undertakers. Is a Death Stick for killing or just for nailing shut coffins? It seems they nailed the lid shut on my future with Hart Tool Co. hammers since I switched away from them when they started painting my handles black and forging the heads with a place for stickers. I don’t like the gaudy chichi embellishments on the Dead On hammers.

I have a dozen Hart Tool Co. hammers yet to be posted on ToolboxBlog.com yet because I was hoping to get them all in one photo. I’ve come close, several of these are Dead On;

My Red Toolbox contains tools I don’t use everyday but need in my truck. If I’m going to use wooden handled hammers, I’ve got to carry a spare handle.

Links:
Death Stick DSRH 18

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Of the four, I probably reach for the rubber mallet most often, using it to knock together frames large and small. The rubber mallet is great for knocking apart furniture without damaging finished pieces. Rubber Mallets comes in different densities and weights. Mine is very old and bears no maker’s mark.

The Rawhide mallet is supposedly for leather, jewelry and machinery work. This one was in a toolbox I inherited and I use it for lightweight projects or finished pieces I don’t want to mar.

Check out my wooden mallet. This one is a real peg pounder. Also inherited but from a different woodworker. This wooden mallet is at least 100 years old.

My woodcarver’s mallet is a tribute to my favorite tool; My chisels. I can’t believe I’ve used this mallet for 10 years and the price tag is still in tact. It’s a 1.5 lb Malleable Iron Mallet and it cost $31.50 then and probably still does. This type of mallet for chisel work is preferred due to it’s dead weight which delivers the force in a positively forward motion. Also quite easy to hold in several ways for tapping shaped blades on delicate work.

It’s funny how certain things look so odd at first sight. I never went to school and had someone show me this funny mallet. I hadn’t seen one in a book.. Someone gave this to me and told me, “It’s supposed to be for chiseling.” I don’t really use it like a hammer or a club to beat the chisel handle, I just hold it in my hand like a rock. (funny, I actually have a rock that I found one day, used and saved 25 years. wtf?)

Links:

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Garland 1 3/4

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SK 8723 Rubber Mallet with Hickory Handle 23-Ounce

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Robert Larson 615-1220 Large Carpenters Mallet

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BRASS HEAD MALLET