mallet or hammer ?

[Don Dougan <dondougan@xxxxxxxx>]

Deborah --

"What do you hit your chisel with?  Mallet? Hammer? Dummy?"

All of the above.  Though I use power tools as well, when I am
beginning a carving the steel hammer is usually in my hand -- I
have a 4 lb., a 3 lb., and a 2 lb. I use the heaviest when I am
whacking the rough waste away from a large or a hard stone. Most
often on pieces weighing less than 100 lbs. though I use the 2
lb. hammer.

After the initial work with the point and the steel hammer I
usually switch to using a 2 lb. or 1-1/2 lb. soft iron or 'lump'
hammer for the coarse/medium tooth chisel work, though finer
tools will be struck with a bronze or zinc dummy (harder stones)
or with wooden mallets (softer stones).

Regular hammer-head chisels can be struck with a mallet or
dummy, but the relatively small heads of this type chisel do
shorten the life of the mallet.  The most durable type of mallet
is not made of wood, but made from stacked rings of leather on a
heavy metal core.  I have never seen a new one for sale anywhere
-- every example I have come across have all been from
second-hand tool dealers or pawn shops.  Also, I have tried-out
(but don't own) a plastic headed carver's mallet that is less
prone to splintering than even a lignum vitae wooden mallet.
GARRETT-WADE (see below) in New York carries it.

I have and regularly use mallet-headed chisels from TIRANTI
(supplier in UK - they do have a website - snail-mail address
below) as well as second-hand mallet-headed chisels factory-made
in USA before WWII.  They are really a joy to use with a wooden
mallet when carving a soft stone such as Indiana limestone, but
they just don't do the job when I am carving Georgia marble  (a
medium-hard coarse-grained marble) --  for that I need the
weight and intensity of a steel hammer.

I probably have about a dozen different  hammers, dummys, and
mallets made from different materials and in different weights.
All of them are used regularly, the choice depending on the
nature of the carving material and the stage of the carving
currently being worked.  I would not like to give any of them up
. . . they all do what they do best. I figure it is my job (as
carver) to figure out which one will give me the best control
for the particular situation.

ALEC TIRANTI LIMITED
70 High Street, Theale
Reading, Berkshire RG7 5AR
England, UK
(0734) 302775
(0734) 323487 FAX

GARRETT WADE
161 Avenue of the Americas
NYC,  NY  10013
212 807-1155 for service
800 221-2942 for orders

Keep it Pounding . . . Don Dougan