Mallet and limestone

["Damon Ayer" <damonayer@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

regarding mallets. there are a variety of sizes available in
nylon mallets. many of the smaller ones are wonderful for
intermediate work. there are also lots of dummies available,
 from heavy to light ones. many of the masonry supply
companies have these available in the uk, in addition to
tiranti. try harbro, cms or avery knight. there is little
problem using dummies on mallet headed chisels. they will
tend to nick the surface if you are using a lot of force,
but for detaile work they don't do much. if there is some
nicking to the chisel end the problem when using a mallet,
be it wood or nylon, is that sharp metal spurs can cause
delamination of the mallet surface. simply grinding the
chisel end smooth again on a wheel takes care of it though.
so you do not need seperate chisels.

incidentally, i oftes use pneumtic shank chisel with my
mallets. the nylon and other synthetic are not nearly so
prone to damage as wood.

for smaller mallets try finding some lignum vitae. it is
quite hard to find, but for the relative size of the mallet
the weight is impressive and they hold up well. also fruit
wood is ideal as it is dense so has a bit of weight for the
size and is wonderful to work with.

take care all
damon