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Rich_Carlstedt wrote:My goto hammer is a Rawhide Mallet , but not the little ones you see everywhere. It is 2 3/4 in diameter with wood handle and is awesome !
Have used the same mallet for 30 years and it is going strong. No marks and may be the original dead blow ?
Rich
Gotcha beat. Mine's 3 1/2" diameter by 5" long. The handle is wimpy, though. Need to make a more suitable one.
I also have 2 1/2 lb hammer that orginally had wooden faces. The wood was shot and it was pretty beat up so I dug the wood out and cleaned it up with the intention of pouring lead faces.
I guess I can get rawhide and lead and switch to something else if I change my mind about the lead.
F everyone's I, while I was looking into this, I found out some rawhide/plastic/nonferrous metal hammers have a serious issue. To change the faces, you have to find a way to get compacted copper or rawhide or whatever out of a hammer head that does not open up. One company actually suggests replacing the hammer. Needless to say, I think the split-head design is a better way to go.
I have a rawhide tip hammer I use for knocking bullet dies open.
No idea of the brand, but it has a malleable or cast iron head & wooden handle and you just hammer in the tips.
To get them out, I drive in a chisel, and pry it a pit. They are 1" in diameter.
I've seen the ones with a split head, that is bolted together. I can see where that would be better on a larger sized hammer than mine.
I don't understand why you would want a metal jacket on a hammer meant to not mark what ever you are hitting ?
As you get older, your reflexes are not as good and you may hit with the side of the hammer accidentally or hit something nearby the goal.
A leather mallet is safe and never mars ... anything. If you desire a new face, just hit the face on a belt sander .
As I said this mallet is over 30 years old and none of my shop tooling have those ugly "peened' marks
Rich
Know this, if you use a lead hammer, you cannot later silver solder the parts as lead is a contamination.
Rich_Carlstedt wrote:I don't understand why you would want a metal jacket on a hammer meant to not mark what ever you are hitting ?
Simple.....mass.
Replaceable tips are a good feature....good idea. I have replaced mine a couple times in 30 years. Remember....I'm talking about smacking a relatively sharp edge here.
I used to use a sawed off piece of a broom handle to pop the molds open. OK, but had to swing harder, and, now & then, would end up with a wood chip landing in the mold, and a semi-wood-wadcutter was the result.
If my aim gets that bad.....guess I should quit casting bullets...or pick a different hammer! So far....so good!
Right tool for the right job. They all have a purpose, and we all have our 'druthers.
Copper Hammers? Sort of an odd story. I bought a hammer at a yard sale for the handle. It is solid copper fixed to a Garland #4 split head. The hammer had no faces, probably because it was already so heavy. Otoh, I need to see how they made that threaded hickory handle.
spro wrote:Copper Hammers? Sort of an odd story. I bought a hammer at a yard sale for the handle. It is solid copper fixed to a Garland #4 split head. The hammer had no faces, probably because it was already so heavy. Otoh, I need to see how they made that threaded hickory handle.
Oh heck. The wood isn't threaded at all. I have another Garland #3 and picked out the sawdust. The octagonal nut we see, bears on a neck of the lower split. The neck must be split and compresses the handle there. So the handle is oval all thru the head. It is weird because the top of the handle is spread by an oval wedge in the top section. I never took the solid bar off the other one. I now hope that the oval "collet" section wasn't drilled out to round. Replacing with a hickory handle should be easy now.
Thx for compelling me to check this out!
So far....so good! 
