using a mallet on a boxwood handle?

[Glenn Samuels]

I have a set of Marples bevel edge chisels with boxwood handles. Are they meant to be hit with a sizable wood mallet (somewhere between delicate and hard)?

[ray hampton]

chisels can be hit with a mallet IF YOU want a soft cut,brass or steel hammer will work IF YOU limit the force behind the swing !!

[Jim Matthews]

I did it this morning.

They're plenty tough.
Make sure the blade is genuinely sharp.

If you feel like you need to strike harder, the tool may not be cutting.

[george wilson]

I only use a wooden mallet myself. Discretion will work with a metal hammer,but I prefer to not risk dinging up my tools with a false move.

[Jim Koepke]

For most of my chisels that do not have leather washers at the top the mallet used on them is made from an old piece of oak 8/4 by approximately 4". It is about 10" long with one end carved into a handle. This is for relatively light taps on a chisel.

Like George, my chisels are only hit with wooden mallets.

A few of my bevel edged chisels are heavy enough to strike with a larger mallet.

The square sided chisels may get a bit more of an enthusiastic whack from a mallet.

A mortise chisel is made to be walloped with a big mallet.

jtk

[Tom M King]

I use Wood is Good mallets on mine.

[Jessica Pierce-LaRose]

All my boxwood handled Marples get hit with a wooden mallet, or occasionally a dead-blow. The guy before me did the same, judging from the ends. They show it, but they're fine. If your handles are lacquer coated (some of mine are, some of mine aren't) that'll show the wear before the handles do. In general, they've held up fine, but these aren't chisels getting tremendous smacks for mortising or being struck by metal, either. As the requirement for force grows, look to whether you're edge stay's sharp.

(So pretty much what everyone else here said)

[Chris Fournier]

I beat on my boxwood Marples with a lignum malle all the time,they laugh and beg for more.

[Glenn Samuels]

After reading all of your posts, I certainly feel better about using a wood mallet. There are very small indentations on the top of the chisels but now I know that this is a normal indication of use. Thank you all

[george wilson]

A dead blow plastic type hammer is good,probably the least damaging type of hammer to use. I prefer the more "precise" blow from a wooden mallet.

I used to make a quick mallet from wheel "Fellies"(fellows) that didn't make it. Always several laying around. They were the rims of wagon wheels. Some split in making them. They already had the curve in them,and holes mortised through for the spokes. Some of the fellies were 4" square,from large ox carts. I'd whack off a hunk for a mallet head,leaving the mortise hole centered,and put a handle through the hole with wedges. I didn't even bother to taper the hole,and never had a handle come loose. The wedges held quite well.

This was my "quick and dirty" way of making a mallet,that was going to get dinged up any way. I put a lot of care into making hardened steel hammers. Not so much into a wooden mallet since it would be damaged in use.

Not that the wooden mallets were terribly crude. Below is one of my "Wheel fellie" Gent's mallet,and a couple of hardened steel small hammers I made by comparison.

[Warren Mickley]

I think you got pretty good responses here, Glenn. I have had some boxwood handled mortise chisels for almost thirty years. I use a 30 ounce dogwood mallet that I made in 1979, and the more useful size chisels have each made several thousand mortises. I inspected the handles this morning and found loss of finish at the very tips and extremely fine cracks in the end grain visible only with a hand lens. I would expect them to be good for four more generations. If mortise chisels are being "whacked" or "bashed" so hard that there is a danger of damaging the handle, I would hate to think how the edge would suffer. Even with handles like beech or ash, the edge is more vulnerable.

[Cory Waldrop]

Frank Strazza who teaches at Homestead Heritage Craft Villiage in Waco has the old bevel edge Marples with the boxwood handles and I have seen him chop many mortises with them using a mallet that one could only call "Thors Hammer". I am not saying that your chisels would hold up as well, but he has no hesitation striking them with a large wood mallet.

[Glenn Samuels]

Warren, you are absolutely right Great Info from all!!!!!

[allen long]

The head of those steel hammers are pretty nice. But what are the smaller ends of the heads used for?

[george wilson]

allen,if your post is directed at me: The small(abt 2" tall) steel hammers are chasing style(more or less) hammers. The broad ends are for striking chasing punches. The ball ends are for doing a bit of metal forming. Usually while the metal(often silver) is held in a matrix of black resin for support. Say I wanted to give a 3 dimensional look to a flower. I'd hammer the shapes of the flower into the metal. Then,with chasing tools,refine and detail the flower.

[Tony Zaffuto]

I've got a number of items that can be used, ranging from a wood mallet, to a "Wood is Good" rubber head mallet, to a Japanese plane hammer to a "Vaughn hammer, with hard plastic on one side and rubber on the other, 16 oz.". Invariably the Vaughn or Wood is Good is used and through the years, I have not noticed any damage to the boxwood handles on my chisels.

I do have one chisel with a mucked up end and that is a heavy 1-1/4" Witherby with an ash handle I made. Like an idiot, in the middle of a job I grabbed the nearest hammer to tap with and hit way to hard. A few days later I chucked the handle in the lathe and made it pretty again. But wouldn't you know, a few weeks later, the same idiot was in my shop and dented the handle again.

[Tom Vanzant]

Tony, LOL. That idiot visits my shop from time to time too.