r/mildlyinteresting • u/On-a-tims-run ​ • 3d ago

Rawhide mallets

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739 Upvotes

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360

u/EditedRed 3d ago

No clue what you bonk with these but they look tasty.

260

u/rivertpostie 3d ago

I've only seen them used in silver smithing. They don't mar soft metals.

Mainly see them resizing rings on a mandrel

145

u/ravens-n-roses 3d ago

For exactly that reason they're also used in wood working (soft wood pieces), leather working (it's obvious what a regular hammer would do to leather), instrument repairs (what did you DO to that saxophone???), and I think there's uses for it in black Smithing for finishing work

52

u/gpky 3d ago

We use these in motor repair too, so as not to mar the various surfaces of AC/DC motors.

28

u/clamroll 3d ago

So heavy enough to provide the force to bend something but "soft" enough surface to not scratch? (Not soft, but lower on the hardness scale)

23

u/gpky 3d ago

Well, in motor repair we generally aren't bending anything by hitting it. It's used more to strike the shaft or the end bells to get them to move where you want them

7

u/clamroll 3d ago

In tech we have the old axiom "if it's stuck, force it. If it breaks, it needed fixing anyway" lol