Mallets Reviews

This mallet performs as stated in the manufacturers specification. The mallet has good balance and has not marred any surface that I have worked with yet.

I use about 4 or 5 of these in my machine shop for setting lathe centers, sheet metal work, and general metal forming and pressing. The mallets (and their hammers), work perfectly, not marring the metal, and not leaving marks on the work surface. Far better than the cheapo rubber and urethane knockoffs that are largely imported for a dime a dozen. For the true craftsman/artisan/professional machinist, you just can't beat these.

Excellent tool, really more of a mallet than a hammer. The dead-blow characteristic provides great control.

Stanley does make dead-blow ball pein hammers but they're very hard to find.

And yes, we can get them here in California. (you don't even have to order avocado with it, dude ;-)

I've had one of these for several years and they are indispensable when assembling tight joints. I use a pounding block in most cases, but if your not pounding too hard and it is hardwood, you won't leave any marks. I have used it on metal projects too, but I always use a wood block to protect the plastic hammer.

There is loose shot in oil in the head which hits the hammer just after the hammer hits the work, offsetting the reaction. The dead blow action keeps the hammer from bouncing, which makes it alot easier on your wrist. You get more movement from a lighter blow with this hammer, as the hammer tends to follow the workpiece's direction of travel. A great tool, but I hear you can't buy one in California. (Hammer Control?)

The bright colors of this mallet actually help me in locating it, often buried in my busy workbench. It is quite light in weight and comfortable in the hand. Well-constructed and should last a long time. I find it just right in assembling cabinetry and dovetail drawers.

Good mostly for the Porta-Nailer. Consider the weight of this tool if you plan on installing a large floor project.

Sturdy piece lasted until we drove over it with the bobcat

Face nailing is the most tedious part of any flooring job, and buying a face nailer would seem to be a good idea. But I highly recommend purchasing a pneumatic finish nailer instead. It will cost more, but it's MUCH more flexible and will save you hours of tedious hand nailing work (even days on a big job). With this face nailer, you're stuck face nailing the first three rows, which leaves a lot of holes in the boards along the wall. You can avoid this by hand-nailing the 2nd and 3rd rows at an angle, but this is extremely tedious and requires great hammer skills. With an air nailer, you can face nail the first run and then begin nailing the tongues at an angle, before you're able to use the angle nailer. You can also finish the last few rows much more easily. Finally, you can use the air nailer for the shoe molding (and any other trim jobs). I recommend a 15-gauge finish nailer with 2" nails. Get the most powerful one you can, since it takes power to counter-sink finish nails in oak. Bostitch makes a nice, small, lightweight nailer which is available in two power ranges - 300 pounds of force and 400 pounds of force. I recommend the more powerful one, even though it costs $100 more. Otherwise, you'll be hand-countersinking all the nails in order to get them deep enough. You'll need to drive more nails with the pneumatic gun in order to stabilize the boards, but it's a easy as pointing and pulling the trigger, so it's not a problem.

Nailer works well. If you hit it properly, it drove the nail with two blows. This product saves a great amount of time over hand nailing. The product could be improved by adding an extra stabilizer on both sides. The product could be steadied by placing foot on either side when nailing, preventing the nailer from jumping away from the nail after the first blow. Easy to use after the first two or three boards.

Unlike the gentleman who derides this product, I found the face nailer a much better means of fastening strip hardwook flooring than a pneumatic nailer. The serrated edge of the nails from Porta-Nails CANNOT be beaten for holding power. Sure, one could use a pneumatic nailer, as have I, to fasten starting and ending rows, but the rows will likely need to be glued down with subflooring adhesive as well as either face-nailed or toe-nailed through the tongue (which is awkward with a finish nailer). This product (in conjunction with the 401P) gives the tightest floor installation possible.

This is far from being ready to use as stated above. I didn't expect it to be perfect as received, but I did expect it to be a whole lot closer than it is. In addition, the cutting edge has a chip which is deep enough to cause a lot of work on my part to bring it back to a straight edge.