Suggestions on a Maul

theWeatherman

theWeatherman

Well-Known Member
So I am unhappy with the poly-mallet that I am using for my tooling. It has lots of give and just let me get the results I am looking for. Some of the other leather stuff I have been looking through show guys using Mauls. I was hoping you guys could give me a suggestion on what type of maul to use (weight, and made by who)? I am only using it for stamps and not really carving, so I don't know if I need more than 16oz?
 
I've got this mallet, its heavy and gives a nice firm stamp every time, but you've got to be spot on. http://www.tandyleatherfactory.com/en-usd/search/searchresults/35004-10.aspx

I've also got two heavy mauls for stamping large prints, and heading for the 1 pound maul for light taps. The nice thing about the maul its very forgiving about placement. Especially the stacked rawhide models, which are becoming harder to find. I have one of each and prefer the rawhide over the poly.

If I can find a 1 pound rawhide maul at a decent price, I think I may have a contender against my mallet.
 
I saw that once. I was hoping not to pay so much for a mallet or maul. Would a 16oz maul or mallet work well for just tooling leather sheaths? Or should I go heavier?
 
A 12oz maul will cover 90% of your needs. There are less expensive options I've seen out there, one being Weaver leather iirc. I'll look it up and make sure. But they had some really nice prices and I will be getting a light maul from them soon.

Too big a maul will be counter productive as its will tire you out. I found a 1 pound piece is good for me. Its the weight of my mallet.
 
Awesome link Rudy! I didn't see any mauls but some of those other tools are making me drool! :biggrin:
 
Yeah, I was interested in Mauls. The Tandy Leather ones are just to expensive to what I want to pay. I can't justify ~$90 for a maul.
 
The polly mauls that most outfits sell require the top of your stamp to have a sharp edge. The older stamps need to have the nice radius on the top ground off for most of the white poly mauls. This will wear your rawhide mallets and mauls pretty fast. If you liike the rawhide mallets you need to round the top of stamps such as Barry Kings as they are made sharp for his Mauls.(all his tools are very good quallity for a fair price) Robert Beards pro mauls are made of some kinda black poly that dosen't need the sharp stamps and works on the old vintage stamps very well. They are not cheap but will last a couple guys lifetime just like the old vintage stamps. I have three of these mauls and have retired my treasured old rawhide mallets and mauls. Nothing beats the feel of the leather washers on a rawhide mauls handle when it's well used but the black Beard mauls don't wear out like rawhide and work as well, maybe better.
 
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Those of you that know my work know I do tons of stamping. I use the mauls from Weaver. I have no problem if the top of the stamp is not flat. I have sizes 16 oz -24 -32 and 48 oz.I am a small person and you get used to the weight. As said before you can get almost all stamping done with a 16 oz. When worn heads are replaceable. I have many thousands of hits with mine and no sign of wear at all. KT
 
kidterico said:
Those of you that know my work know I do tons of stamping. I use the mauls from Weaver. I have no problem if the top of the stamp is not flat. I have sizes 16 oz -24 -32 and 48 oz.I am a small person and you get used to the weight. As said before you can get almost all stamping done with a 16 oz. When worn heads are replaceable. I have many thousands of hits with mine and no sign of wear at all. KT
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I took a look at the Weaver website and couldn't get a price to save my life for their 16oz maul....
 
You are correct! I went there yesterday and found a whole new world. I have one of their catalogs from a few years back, I'll see if I can find it and let you know.

I do know that their prices were very reasonable. I'll have to give them a call and see whats up.
 
leatherman said:
You are correct! I went there yesterday and found a whole new world. I have one of their catalogs from a few years back, I'll see if I can find it and let you know.

I do know that their prices were very reasonable. I'll have to give them a call and see whats up.
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Understood. I would like to hear about it. Their website is hard to navigate and their catalog on the website just has the item numbers but no prices and when I try to look up the item number in their shop it doesn't have it..... Just a whole bunch of difficult.
 
Nice to know on the weaver mauls KT, Thanks.

They make you prove your a business to get a catolog if I remember right. I have a current catolog if you cant find prices.
 
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I just bought a new raw hide medium size mallet from tandy its ok but now that ive seen this freakin post I want a new mallet. Kinda like buyin a new fishin rod I guess its a man thing dam it . I wish I had seen this sooner. I at first didnt like the look but the guy at tandy its the best bang for the buck . I reglued the face with acriglass and then reflattened it and use one side for beating the glued leather together and the other for stamping. Im learning lots from this in the past 5 weeks. The mallet with the interchangable heads in the 2 1/2 pound range looks like the right one ????? Is it????? I also looked at the rapid rivot setter im gonna make one now I got lots of old punches. Kellyw
 
You have to take everything with a grain of salt. I am pretty picky about my tools, some of them work out well when I make them and sometimes they don't and I have to spend the money for a good set. I have a poly mallet that I don't like so thats why I started looking at the mauls.

I have been trying to find a mirror faced hammer like Paul Long uses in his Leather DVDs. But I haven't really looked that hard, I think it will work better than the rawhide mallet you suped up but that doesn't mean what you have is bad, just my opinion. I am going to get a 160z maul and then get a mirror head hammer next.
 
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That hammer you saw is a Cobblers Hammer. They used to sell them at the Leather Factory, but discontinued them a couple of years ago.

They're pretty common on ebay though, I saw a couple of heads recently. They're not bad on the price but be prepared to refinish the face, most old ones are not super smooth.
 
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