Shop Fox D2810 Brass Head Mallet, 12-Ounce

Finally, I found someone selling brass mallets that are good quality & reasonably priced...

Nice

El producto está bien. La cabeza es sólida, muy pesada. Pesa unpoco menos de 400grs. y tiene un balance aceptable. Eso sí, el mango no está lijado ni tiene ningún tratamiento que era lo que se esperaba de un producto de este tipo; pero tampoco es que alguien que lo necesita no vaya a tener lo necesario para darle esa terminación.

I've used this for several days of carving so far. No more time is needed to tell that I'll never be without it again. I typically carve walking sticks, canes with faces using a side branch as a nose and go from there. Lots of relief carving of patterns and characature figures as well. This requires small gouges and chisel carving tools about 4" - 6" long working in hardwoods like Cherry, Ginkgo, Birch, etc. The great benefit of using a very small/short mallet like this is the ease of getting a very controlled high energy strike on the tool with a very short swing...due to the relatively high mass of the 12 oz. Brass head. I've used everything from polyurethane covered carving mallets to cheap dollar tool bin rubber mallets (these latter work quite well actually) but nothing has provided the feel, control and effectiveness of this little beauty. I got it on a whim to get my purchase total over the free shipping level but it's turned out to be one of the best tools in my box. At first I thought it was too heavy and that I should have gotten the lighter model, but after a little time with it I've discovered it's that weight that makes it really a joy to work with.

I read a lot of complaints about the handle, but mine was fine, tho admittedly, I prefer bare or oiled wood handles and I don’t spend a lot of time worrying about how pretty my tools so long as they are precise, sharp, reliable, organized, and ready for work. That said, this was my first brass head and I quickly discovered it’s nice to have more inertia in a smaller package because you need way less swing, but the smooth surface behaves very differently on the chisel pommel being incredibly smooth and having zero give. If you are doing a lot of clockwise curves the head might unscrew on you, but a dab of epoxy will fix that. Overall good bang for the buck, mine was as described. Might take a rough grit to the brass surface to get a bit more traction if you are carving Latin organ pipes or something for the Vatican, but it allows precise enough cuts for my sloppy carvings as it is.

excellent for small detail carving

I bought this as I had bought a new set of wood chisels and needed a brass head hammer. I've never really heard of a carving hammer before until I started looking for a hammer on here and seen this. I ended up using it to hammer out a stuck bolt and have used it for non carving purposes ever since. Its worked great for me for everything from using a center punch to beating out rusted bolts. I know that's not what its meant for but thats what I do with it. I love its compact size. JUST A TIP: Unscrew the head and use loctite on the threads. Itll never loosen up on you again.

Like most tools these days you're going to have to invest some time into it to make it right...it shouldn't be that way but...The brass head is well done and I spent a minute buffing it if only to remove the Shop Fox logo that looked like it was stuck on by a five year old.It's advertised as a "Maple" handle, but it must be some kind of off world maple or maybe some weird island nation maple I've never heard of. Think of it as the chineseum of wood rather than metal.Anyway, y'all will need to remove the head and add a drop of locktite to keep the head on during use, and while you have it off you might as well sand down and refinish the handle to the hand tool finish of your choice, which will result in you saying it's still awful so you'll end up just making a new one. After that you'll be left with a nice solid little mallet for fine or detail work... I kind of like it after I got done with it as it allows for a lot of control for delicate corners.