Hammers to Use With Chisels Part 1 – Hammer Varieties

Yet such is oft the course of deeds that move the wheels of the world: small hands do them because they must, while the eyes of the great are elsewhere.

Elrond

This is the first article in a six-part series that condenses the advice your humble servant has given to our Beloved Customers over the years regarding the hammers they should use with our chisels. While some of this information is relevant to our warranty, all of it is relevant to how well our chisels will perform and the pleasure Beloved Customers will enjoy using them.

In this first part we will focus on the varieties of hammers we recommend. Subsequent articles in this series will focus on appropriate hammer weights and faces, how to use a chisel efficiently, the “chisel cha-cha,” the importance of rhythm, as well as a discussion about health and hammers. There may even be a song or two to hum along with. Helluvalot better than a performance of Cats, and cheaper too!

In the future we will present several different series, one with more details about hammer heads, and another explaining why and describing how to make a handle for a Japanese gennou hammer (or any hammer for that matter), with scaled reference drawings. We will of course provide the entire contents of these articles wrapped up in a happy wiggling bundle to Beloved Customers that purchase one of our gennou heads. Yes, there are more perks to being a Beloved Customer than simple toe-curling joy (ツ）。As Blackadder’s little buddy Baldrick often said: ” I have a cunning plan.”

Hammer Materials

We sell tatakinomi chisels such as oiirenomi, hantataki chisels, mukomachinomi (mortise chisels), or atsunomi all designed to be motivated by the most efficient method available, namely a steel hammer swung by human hand and arm. I won’t debate the pros/cons of steel hammers versus wooden mallets versus plastic mallets versus brass hammers in this post because the physics are as obvious as a lemur in a lingerie shop (they’re a bit hairy, they jump and climb all over the displays and bra straps are forever slipping off their skinny shoulders, but not in a seductive manner!) beyond noting that a hardened steel hammer imparts more energy to a chisel in a more easily focused and controllable manner than any other type of beater. Some may disagree; A mind is a terrible thing to taste.

Occasionally Gentle Readers, and sometimes even Beloved Customers, ask if it’s OK to use a mallet of wood or plastic. Of course, it’s entirely acceptable, but no more necessary in the case of our professional-grade chisels than a speed governor set at 45mph is in a Ferrari.

The advantages of using a steel hammer to motivate chisels are quite obvious, even without doing energy calculations, but are there any disadvantages? Mochiron (Japanese for “of course”).

Steel hammers can concentrate so much energy on a tool handle so efficiently and so quickly that they routinely destroy the handles of the sharpened screwdrivers sold as chisels nowadays in Western countries due to faulty handle design.

At this point, wise Gentle Reader will ask themself why the handles of modern chisels are so fragile. Is it just an accident? If intentional, is modern wood softer and easier to cut than wood a few hundred years ago? Or has modern man become demented forgetting all the lessons of the past regarding chisel design, just as some have forgotten what the word “woman” means?

While dementia, sexual perversion and corruption among the leaders of the nations is obviously a serious problem nowadays, it is likely many marketing gurus, e-commerce pukes and cad operators never learned much about the tools they manufacture and sell. It’s also as obvious as lingerie on a lemur that most modern chisels are designed not to provide good service but rather to maximize profits through: (1) Lowest possible manufacturing costs; (2) Attractive appearance while hanging on hooks in the hardware store; and (3) Future purchases to replace chisels with broken handles, in other words, a cheap, good-looking product incorporating planned obsolescence.

Lemurs in lacy unmentionables aside, the tataki nomi chisels we sell are professional-grade tools designed to be struck by hardened-steel flat-faced hammers all day long and need not be coddled. They have tough Japanese oak handles protected by a cleverly-designed mild-steel kuchigane (coned ferrule) fitted where the handle meets the blade, and a mild-steel hoop, or crown, seated at the butt end of the handle, so they will not split or break when setup and used properly.

We have provided clear instructions for how to perform this setup job here.

But there is more to hammers than just materials, so let’s continue onto the next subject.

Japanese Hammer Types

The traditional hammer used in Eastern Japan for striking chisels and general carpentry work is called a “gennou” pronounced “ghen/noh.”

The gennou common to Eastern Japan is a simple symmetrical cylinder of one sort or another with a flat face on one end and a domed face on the other, often called the “ryoguchi gennou.” No claws, no pointy tail. The flat face is used for striking chisels and pounding nails. The domed face is used for something called “kigoroshi” and for the last stroke when setting nails. It’s a handy tool and more stable in the swing than a claw hammer. It’s just a matter of physics.

Japanese carpenters use a specialized nail bar for pulling nails effectively increasing the lifespan of their hammer handles, so claws are not necessary.

The Yamakichi style gennou head (see photo below) is another variety popular primarily in Western Japan. The tail is not pointy but tapers to a small square face that is useful for starting small nails and for “ tapping out” plane blades. The striking face typically has a slight curvature which is helpful for setting nails, but not enough to damage a chisel. The moment of inertia is less than the symmetrical gennou head so it is not as stable in the swing, but it is still a fine head and very sexy looking.

The pictures below are of a gennou head called “Funate,” which translates to “boat hand.” I have heard it originated with ship carpenters, but am uncertain. The tail end is a small square as you can see from the photo, and is handy for setting nails. It makes a great finish hammer, but as a hammer for striking gennou it never appealed to me. But there are plenty of craftsmen that love this hammer.

Any of these hammers will do the job: it’s all personal preference.

Western Hammer Types

The purpose of this article is is not to suggest that Beloved Customers must use a Japanese gennou hammer when beating on our chisels. In fact, nearly any variety of quality steel hammer can be easily modified to do the job more-or-less satisfactorily, including claw hammers, engineer’s hammers, warrington hammers, or even ball peen hammers, so it isn’t necessary to buy a special hammer. In fact, we’ll discuss those modifications in detail as well as the relevant physics of hammers in future articles in this series. Rejoice for there will be formulas!

In the next post in this series we will examine the type of face a hammer used to strike our chisels should have. Please come back and bring your fuzzy primate friends.

YMHOS

If you have questions or would like to learn more about our tools, please click the see the “Pricelist” link here or at the top of the page and use the “Contact Us” form located immediately below.

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Other Posts in this Series “Hammers to Use With Our Chisels”

• Part 1 – Hammer Varieties
• Part 2 – Hammer Faces
• Part 3 – Hammer Weight
• Part 4 – The Chisel Cha-Cha
• Part 5 – Rhythm & Song
• Part 6 – Hammers & Health