The Armour Archive

Make it hit harder!

Ordinary clay


Roll it out


Form inside the mallet face


Open petrobond mold


Good bit of lead


Voila!

Two problems with this setup, one lead can be very soft depending on the alloy.
Tire weights are soft, while the gun range is harder.

You only have one radius where are the others?

I'm not hitting anything with the lead, only the rawhide.
It serves the same purpose as a split head rawhide mallet, only it hits harder.

There are other alloys if lead is not you favorite metal.

I like molten metal castings.
Got any more pics after test?
My Tin/Lead alloy is very scarce now.
Thanks for the pics.

Hal

a source of tin lead alloy I use that is cheap is old solder, I often pick up half reels of plumbing solder or thinner normal solder or even the bigger sticks in a junkyard I go to, most will be 60/40 and mixing it all in together it wont matter much if some is not.
also here at 'car boot sales' people often sell a roll or two, all you need is an idea of a good price per pound and if you get it for less than a quarter of that you are winning.

just another junkyard suggestion

I got the metal years ago from a junk store. Over half was ingots but there was a good bit already cast into musket balls, so I'm guessing it's bullet alloy of some kind.
I used the mallet last night to dish out some gauntlet lames. I like it a lot. I'm noticing a lot more as I get older how much easier it is just to do the lifting part of hammering, and let the hammer do the work.
My dad's no kind of smith at all, and he likes to say "Don't force it, get a heavier hammer!" He's right a lot more literally than he thinks.