The Armour Archive

Is there a signifigant difference between the locking nut, and the allen wrench rawhide sledge hammers?
Thanks,
Brennainn

Not that I've heard. As long as they work, and they work for quite a while, get whichever type best suits your purse.

The allen wrench style has an easier handle to replace.
Size of the working face and weight are more of a decideing factor when it comes to usefulness of the tool.

They are awesome. I lucked out and got my first 4lb weighted rawhide at a flea market, fool sold it to me for $3. a Goland worth $65+. Only issue Ive had is the staggering cost of the replacement rawhides. Like $20 a piece! Yes, I tried the dog chews and even ripped up a 2 1.2 inch rawhide mallet head to fit into th weighted hammer, but thise heads dont have the "sink" or somewhat softness of the origional pieces...more bounce. Great for dishing without all the reverberation and hammer marks

How often do you find yourself replacing the hammer faces?
Thanks,
Brennainn

well the ones in the used Garland were worn very low, but the 1/2" that was left worked for over a year before It finally pinched off enough at the sides to make the occasional metal scuff mark on deep dishing. STill, $20 a pop for heads still seems like gouging.

Hi there, Ive used a rawhide for the last 5 years or so off and on, the heads last alot longer if you flip them over once in a while. I ground one head rounded for dishing on it too. Seems to work good. If you cant find a rawhide for cheap you can just use a rubber dead blow hammer.

TY

PB

Brennainn wrote:How often do you find yourself replacing the hammer faces?
Thanks,
Brennainn

Bloody seldom; they work superbly even after they get all raggy and chewed up and mushroomed. Garland also offers other kinds of split head mallet faces, of brass, rubber, and nylon. Worth the tariff for the effort they save in planishing and bouging -- no hammer marks, no bag'o'marbles, and you can do soft-hammer/hard-anvil "hammering on air" raising very efficiently. In fact, it's easy to overdo and curl up your metal too tightly. Then you have to undo some work by bopping it out flatter again. It's like the hammer becomes the forming stake and the metal gets pushed down around it by its edges instead of stretched thinner and thinner in its middle.