Japanese chisel hammers

[Tri Hoang]

What are your prefered sizes for chopping dovetails & mortises?

[Scott Stafford]

13 oz. barrel hammer from Japan Woodworker for dovetails, and 16 oz Blue Spruce mallet for most other things.

Scott in Montana

[Tony Shea]

I just recently received the 13oz square head laminated steel jap hammer from Tools for Working Wood. I absolutely love the hammer and use it for all sorts of things. One of the best purchases in a while as before I have been just using my work hammer 20oz AntiVibe. Just not meant for this sort of fine work. I think the 13oz (375g) is a great all around weight especially for chopping with jap. chisels.

147602

[george wilson]

I know these steel hammers are the authentic thing for Japanese chisels. I prefer to never strike a chisel with a steel hammer,myself,even with the steel band on the chisel.

[harry strasil]

+1, George.

[Christian Castillo]

450g (Daruma) barrel shaped hammer with a shortened handle.

[Stanley Covington]

The weight of hammer you should use depends entirely on the intended purpose, the size of the chisel being struck, the required speed, the required control, and the strength of your arm and wrist.

You need three or four to do it right, but you can get by with two.

Don't forget: hit the chisel with the flat face of the hammer, not the rounded face.

Stan

[Tom Henderson2]

Don't forget: hit the chisel with the flat face of the hammer, not the rounded face.
Stan

Well I'll be a monkey's uncle....

I've had a 375gr barrel-headed hammer for a year or so. Never noticed that there was a slight convexity to one face. I guess I just haven't been paying attention!

Now, the $64 question. What is the intended use for the convex face?

Thanks...

-TH

[Stanley Covington]

Dear Uncle Monkey (just joking):

The convex face is for hitting nails and for "kigoroshi."

Kigoroshi means "kill wood" (ki = wood, korosu = kill). Using this face of the hammer, you can strike a tenon's cheek, for instance, compressing the wood fibers enough to allow an intentionally oversized tenon to fit into its mortise. With time, or the application of a wet rage just before assembly, the fibers will swell to nearly their original dimensions, locking the joint very tightly. This works well with softwoods like spruce and cedar, not so well with hardwoods like oak or beech.

A flat faced hammer does not work nearly as well.

Stan

[Derek Cohen]

What are your prefered sizes for chopping dovetails & mortises?

My genno for Japanese dovetail and bench chisels weighs 375 gms.

For my OB mortice chisels (all unhooped) I now use a Blue Spruce mallet. This weighs 16 oz. I would not use a steel head on wooden handles.

Regards from Perth

Derek

[Zach England]

So if I ordered my first japanese bench chisels (Matsamura white steel) recently, what would be a good first japanese mallet?

[David Weaver]

I think the two decisions you need to make are:
* how much weight
* whether or not you want a barrel shaped hammer or one of the slimmer ones

I use the barrel shaped hammer, I think whatever the one is a step up from 375g so that I can grip it closer to the barrel.

I still like to use a mallet better for japanese mortise chisels, especially anything bigger than 1/4 inch. It doesn't hurt my ears as much as striking the mortise chisels hard with a metal hammer.

[Frank Drew]

I've done a ton of work with Japanese chisels, both bench and framing, using steel Japanese hammers, and I haven't seen any ill effects to the chisel handles (I don't consider ca. 1/16" mushrooming to be an "ill effect"); in my experience, the hoops do exactly what they're suppose to.

And there's no doubt, IMO, that if you really need to whack that chisel you can do it more easily and more precisely with a steel hammer.

[Pam Niedermayer]

I like 1 lb minimum for chisel striking, much more for really big chisels when mortising, especially in hard wood. I use a 2 lb hammer for dai mortising.

Pam

[Johnny Kleso]

I have picked up a few of these Rawhide Split Hammers at eBbay in different sizes and find them perfect
http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/112CSMFDEBL._SL500_AA300_.jpg

They are very pricely new but @ ebay they can be had for $20-$30