Dead Blow Hammer - How Quiet Are These Things?

[Luke Dupont]

Hi guys.

Another question!

As I stated in my previous post, I'm looking to start back up my expensive and frustrating apartment woodworking experience.

But this time, I'm looking to tackle aggressively the noise problem.

The most difficult part of this process in the past was reverberations from saws (which I can fix I think) and the incredibly loud noise that results from hitting a chisel with a hammer.

Not being able to hit a chisel with a hammer at all makes for an incredibly frustrating woodworking experience.

Thus, I'm looking for every way on earth to make this possible, and way way quieter.

I've heard that Dead Blow Hammers are very quiet. Is this the case? Would this help, and if so, in what way?
We have to contend with both the schock of the impact, which travels through the bench and to the floor, and walls, and also the shock of the hammer hitting the chisel, which can be loud as well. Also the bench top acting as a potential sound board if it is too thin?

[John Jardin]

Luke,
You remind me of the deaf man who wanted to start a rock band...it won't work.
Why not choose something that will? How about wood carving?

[Kevin Jenness]

Not quiet enough. Time to find another hobby, find a shop space or move.

[Luke Dupont]

Luke,
You remind me of the deaf man who wanted to start a rock band...it won't work.
Why not choose something that will? How about wood carving?


Thanks! There's a lot of truth to that, and I tend to embrace the whole "if life gives you lemons, make lemonade" approach.

But, I think my goal is somewhat realistic -- I'm not looking to make furniture. And I can accomplish a lot without actually hitting a chisel, or needing to rip large boards. Small projects, predimensioned wood, and, indeed, maybe carving are what I'm after.

I'm sure there will be, even when carving, times where I want to hit a chisel with a mallet. It gives you much more control. Granted, the hits can be much lighter, and there's no need to chop straight down, which is much louder.

I am thinking that the dead blow hammer spreads the impact over a longer time frame, making cushioned pads under a chopping block, or under the feet of the bench, potentially effective at dispersing the energy enough to prevent it being transferred into the floor enough to present a problem.

I am in a much better position this time in that I am now on the first floor, so the only vibrations that would transfer to the top floor neighbors are ones which travel through the floor and up the walls. The wooden floor is not so solid and appears to perhaps be raised up/hollowish so this can happen I think, but it's much better than previous apartments that I've been in.

I've been doing this a while, and in many different apartments, so I think I have a sense of what is doable, and to what degree.

[Tom M King]

I have a number of dead blow hammers in the mechanic shop, and a number of Wood is Good urethane mallets for hitting woodworking chisels. I'd skip over the dead blow hammer, and go right to a Wood is Good. With a sharp chisel, you don't have to hit it that hard. I actually use the 12 oz. one the most, anyway. They give the chisel more of a push, than an impact.

The Dead Blow hammer will not have as good a feel on the chisel, and there is no rebound, so you have to put all the effort it takes to pick it back up for the next blow.

There is not much difference in the sound of the two.

[steven c newman]

One...foam floor pads under the feet of the bench, to isolate it from the floor. 2, play music as you work....and time the mallet blows to the drums.

[John K Jordan]

Luke,
You remind me of the deaf man who wanted to start a rock band...it won't work.
Why not choose something that will? How about wood carving?

Wood carving can involve quite a bit of hammering with a mallet! Then there are rotary carvers, reciprocal carvers...

Chip carving, OTOH, is about the quietest hobby I know besides reading.

JKJ

[Christopher Charles]

As I noted in your other thread, I have used the wood is good mallet quite a bit. It is useful for taking the edge off the noise and used to use in the garage to limit sound coming into the house. But it was still playing the drums, to stretch the analogy above. Might be manageabe though, whereas a gennou or even wood mallet really does need a separate shop space.

[Tyler Bancroft]

Try a 16 oz. rubber mallet. About as quiet as you can get.

[Jim Koepke]

I am thinking that the dead blow hammer spreads the impact over a longer time frame, making cushioned pads under a chopping block, or under the feet of the bench, potentially effective at dispersing the energy enough to prevent it being transferred into the floor enough to present a problem.

The dead blow mallet isn't designed to cancel noise. It is designed to not bounce, i.e. be dead when it delivers its blow. Not sure if it is the same these days but the old ones had a hollow chamber inside about half full of lead pellets. When the mallet was being swung down the shot was virtually weightless. When the mallet face met its impact point the lead pellets would continue forward inside of the mallet to the back of the mallet's face causing more force to the work before it could bounce back.

This makes me wonder if an electronic noise cancelation scheme might be your answer. Kind of like noise cancelling headphones with big speakers.

jtk

[Jim Koepke]

Another thought would be to get to know your neighbors and schedule your loudest work for when they are not home.

They also might be forgiving of your noise if you made them a few items.

jtk

[roger wiegand]

Isolating your bench from the floor will probably accomplish the most in terms of not bugging the neighbors. You probably have a direct path from your work surface to their ceiling, creating a direct conduction amplifier for your blows. Something like dense foam platforms under the feet could do a lot to break that direct conduction route.

Also, talk to them, find out if there's a time when they aren't home (or when it's not the baby's nap time) when it's OK for you to make more noise.

A gift of a small handmade piece might also do a lot to smooth relations-- fill it with chocolate chip cookies if necessary!

[Sam Goldsmith]

What kind of chisel work are you doing? Chopping out dovetails and mortises? I find that's pretty loud regardless, but I live in a duplex so out of curtesy to them, and my tinnitus, I found what makes the least amount of noise. Whatever you are working on, the tighter it is clamped to the bench the quieter it is, this makes the biggest difference IMO, so clamp it at a couple spots if you need. Also the bigger your bench is, I assume would dissipate the sound more, so if you're also working on building a bench, thicken it up where you can, to the point of being able to move it. Or make it big, get rid of your dining room table, and eat dinner at it.

I use both a round "carvers mallet" I made from maple, and I use the Crucible Tools lump hammer once in a while. It's a hammer with a two pound head I use in a similar way to a deadblow, choking up on the handle and essentially assisting gravity just a little with each hit (which is why I'm fine with using a metal hammer on my wooden chisels). Using that lump hammer in combination with a light cut each time is a lot quieter than the mallet. I believe this is because there isn't a ton of speed in each hit, it's the inertia of that heavy hammer that does the work. And the noise level is mostly the impact of whatever you're hitting the chisel with so using a deadblow, not swinging it like crazy, and always using sharp chisels, I think you'd get by. Especially since no one lives below you.

[john zulu]

Quiet is subjective. How many dB do you want to tolerate with?

[Tom Bender]

The most difficult part of this process in the past was reverberations from saws

If Japanese saws make too much noise you may have to take up needlework.

[Luke Dupont]

If Japanese saws make too much noise you may have to take up needlework.

You would be surprised just how loud they can be... Especially rip cuts. The difficulty with ripping and Japanese saws is that if you are above your work, the teeth are actually going against the grain, and also lifting the work up and away from the saw horse or bench, resulting in a lot of very loud vibrations.

In my old apartments in the states, I was on the second floor in a wooden building, and those vibrations carried very easily down to the first floor apparently. But I was not doing anything special to insulate / decouple my work surface from the floor.

In my current place, I'm on the first floor, so this is far less of a problem. I do wonder how easy it is for vibrations from the floor to carry up to the walls though. In any case, rubber half dome feet and a bench with some mass seem to make saw vibrations, at least from smaller saws, a non issue. I haven't tried ripping any large boards to width or anything of the sort yet, though.

[Tom Bender]

Clamping the work to the bench or sawhorses can help a lot with noise and makes the sawing nicer. I think you're going for nicer more than quick.

[Mark Rainey]

Had an apartment 20 years ago and was doing hand tool woodworking. The neighbor beneath me was trouble, and constantly knocked on my door and complained to landlord. My work was not especially loud, but he found it "irksome". It really put a damper on my hobby. Got into carving, but sharpening a v-tool discourage me. Dabbled in chip carving, but because of marginal sharpening skills at the time, my knife was just not sharp enough and I became discouraged. I moved. As mentioned above, your best chance might be to see if you can communicate with your neighbors about a time you can create some noise without "irking" them. Perhaps make them an item also.

[Jason Buresh]

I would skip the bead blow completely. I use mine in the garage, not the woodshop. The point of a dead blow is not to reduce sound but to prevent the hammer from bouncing after striking.

Personally I would go with a carvers mallet. Or a cheap rubber mallet.