I was wondering if anyone here might remember a company that made paper mallets in the US. They're like a rawhide mallet but rolled with paper
and are used on soft metals where other materials could mark the metal.
My metalsmithing instructor said in the late 1970s that the last company making them in the US closed as a result of an OSHA inspection and as
OSHA only came into being in 1971 that likely brings the company's
existence into the early to mid 1970s. He did speak as though it was a
recent event and knew the details. Apparently the owners of the company
felt the investment required to bring things up to the required safety standards wasn't worth it for such a niche product and so closed it
down. As it's less than 50 years since the closure maybe someone has a memory, I haven't found anything on the internet yet.
On 9/15/2021 12:28 PM, David Billington wrote:
I was wondering if anyone here might remember a company that made
paper mallets in the US. They're like a rawhide mallet but rolled
with paper and are used on soft metals where other materials could
mark the metal. My metalsmithing instructor said in the late 1970s
that the last company making them in the US closed as a result of an
OSHA inspection and as OSHA only came into being in 1971 that likely
brings the company's existence into the early to mid 1970s. He did
speak as though it was a recent event and knew the details.
Apparently the owners of the company felt the investment required to
bring things up to the required safety standards wasn't worth it for
such a niche product and so closed it down. As it's less than 50
years since the closure maybe someone has a memory, I haven't found
anything on the internet yet.
Sorry, I do not know anything about that, but paper well compacted or
wrapped and bonded in the form of something like the head of a mallet
could be quite hard. If you are only looking for information about
the company I can not help you at all.
However some years back I had some dented muffler tips on high
performance mufflers for a Harley. The tips were slip on, and the
dented or curled in edge could be easily struck with a hammer.
Obviously a hammer could roughly restore the shape, but would cause
smaller other dents. My answer was to use a cast lead mallet. Due to
its weight it easily transferred a high amount of energy to the struck
sheet metal of the muffler tips, but becuase of its maleability it
deformed to the metal and cause the metals to stretch into shape
rather them deform from point impacts. It worked amazingly well, and
did not mar the work piece at all. After just a short time working on
it they looked like they were factory fresh out of the box. I may
have posted about it on this group back in the late 1990s.
A cast lead head mallet can be made easily enough, and it can be
melted down and re-poured many times as needed. OSHA would probably
throw a screaming hissy tantrum and bang their feet and fists on the
floor over its making and its use in a work place, but in your home
shop nobody needs to know about it except you.
"Bob La Londe" wrote in message news:shtih3$qh$1@gioia.aioe.org... ...
A cast lead head mallet can be made easily enough, and it can be melted
down and re-poured many times as needed. OSHA would probably throw a screaming hissy tantrum and bang their feet and fists on the floor over
its making and its use in a work place, but in your home shop nobody
needs to know about it except you.
---------------------
https://www.cookhammer.com/make.html
"Bob La Londe" wrote in message news:shtih3$qh$1@gioia.aioe.org... ...
A cast lead head mallet can be made easily enough, and it can be melted
down and re-poured many times as needed. OSHA would probably throw a screaming hissy tantrum and bang their feet and fists on the floor over
its making and its use in a work place, but in your home shop nobody needs
to know about it except you.
---------------------
https://www.cookhammer.com/make.html
"David Billington" wrote in message news:shto53$cgp$1@dont-email.me...
I've used paper mallets and they're the best tool for the job on a soft
metal like pewter (Britannia metal), lead would likely be too damaging
to the surface. The mallets I used had already been in use for some
years and were broken in, apparently when new the paper mallets do need
to be used for a bit to break in the faces of the mallet.
---------------
Do you know if there's a significant difference between a paper and an
end grain wooden hammer (beetle), which is easy to make? https://blog.lostartpress.com/2013/06/10/the-mallet-and-beetle/
I get good results on thin sheet steel with a hammer with one plastic
and one brass face. Usually the plastic face is enough to flatten the
burr and curl on a shear cut and straighten corrugated roofing that a
fallen branch crumpled, using 1-1/2" or 2" pipe on sawhorses for the
anvil. The brass head is needed only to flatten tight creases in
severe damage. A rubber mallet didn't have enough authority to shape
the roofing to the pipe well enough. The galvanizing remains intact,
areas I fixed many years ago still haven't rusted.
On 15/09/2021 23:03, Jim Wilkins wrote:
"David Billington" wrote in message news:shto53$cgp$1@dont-email.me...I would say yes there is a significant difference, I have a couple of
I've used paper mallets and they're the best tool for the job on a soft
metal like pewter (Britannia metal), lead would likely be too damaging
to the surface. The mallets I used had already been in use for some
years and were broken in, apparently when new the paper mallets do need
to be used for a bit to break in the faces of the mallet.
---------------
Do you know if there's a significant difference between a paper and an
end grain wooden hammer (beetle), which is easy to make?
https://blog.lostartpress.com/2013/06/10/the-mallet-and-beetle/
I get good results on thin sheet steel with a hammer with one plastic
and one brass face. Usually the plastic face is enough to flatten the
burr and curl on a shear cut and straighten corrugated roofing that a
fallen branch crumpled, using 1-1/2" or 2" pipe on sawhorses for the
anvil. The brass head is needed only to flatten tight creases in
severe damage. A rubber mallet didn't have enough authority to shape
the roofing to the pipe well enough. The galvanizing remains intact,
areas I fixed many years ago still haven't rusted.
wooden mallets and find they're prone to denting/bruising whatever you
want to call it whereas the paper mallets were quite resilient in
comparison. The last time I spoke to my old tutor they still had the odd precious paper mallet but reserved for special work, having largely been forced to use nylon or other plastic mallets but they needed to be kept
free of dings or other marks which could easily transfer to the soft
work piece.
Do you know if there's a significant difference between a paper and an end grain wooden hammer (beetle), which is easy to make?
I was wondering if anyone here might remember a company that made paper >mallets in the US. They're like a rawhide mallet but rolled with paper
and are used on soft metals where other materials could mark the metal.
My metalsmithing instructor said in the late 1970s that the last company >making them in the US closed as a result of an OSHA inspection and as
OSHA only came into being in 1971 that likely brings the company's
existence into the early to mid 1970s. He did speak as though it was a
recent event and knew the details. Apparently the owners of the company
felt the investment required to bring things up to the required safety >standards wasn't worth it for such a niche product and so closed it
down. As it's less than 50 years since the closure maybe someone has a >memory, I haven't found anything on the internet yet.
On Wed, 15 Sep 2021 20:28:47 +0100
David Billington <djb@invalid.com> wrote:
I was wondering if anyone here might remember a company that made paper >>mallets in the US. They're like a rawhide mallet but rolled with paper
and are used on soft metals where other materials could mark the metal.
My metalsmithing instructor said in the late 1970s that the last company >>making them in the US closed as a result of an OSHA inspection and as
OSHA only came into being in 1971 that likely brings the company's >>existence into the early to mid 1970s. He did speak as though it was a >>recent event and knew the details. Apparently the owners of the company >>felt the investment required to bring things up to the required safety >>standards wasn't worth it for such a niche product and so closed it
down. As it's less than 50 years since the closure maybe someone has a >>memory, I haven't found anything on the internet yet.
Thought you might find this patent search of interest:
https://patents.google.com/patent/US174932A/en?q=((B25D1%2f00))+(paper)&country=US&oq=((B25D1%2f00))+(paper)+country:US&sort=old
It seems the idea of using paper and/or pasteboard for the striking
surface has been around awhile...
I'm aware of them and am currently in contact with the couple and have >ordered one of their paper mallets. The history they state though is >incomplete as they were not aware of the company I'm enquiring about and >paper mallets were far from forgotten by the 1970s as I was using them
in my metalsmithing class in the late 1970s and they still had some as
late as about 2000 when I last spoke with the tutor.
On Thu, 16 Sep 2021 10:20:35 -0400
Leon Fisk <lfiskgr@gmail.invalid> wrote:
On Wed, 15 Sep 2021 20:28:47 +0100Also found this place which still sells them and has this history note:
David Billington <djb@invalid.com> wrote:
I was wondering if anyone here might remember a company that made paperThought you might find this patent search of interest:
mallets in the US. They're like a rawhide mallet but rolled with paper
and are used on soft metals where other materials could mark the metal.
My metalsmithing instructor said in the late 1970s that the last company >>> making them in the US closed as a result of an OSHA inspection and as
OSHA only came into being in 1971 that likely brings the company's
existence into the early to mid 1970s. He did speak as though it was a
recent event and knew the details. Apparently the owners of the company
felt the investment required to bring things up to the required safety
standards wasn't worth it for such a niche product and so closed it
down. As it's less than 50 years since the closure maybe someone has a
memory, I haven't found anything on the internet yet.
https://patents.google.com/patent/US174932A/en?q=((B25D1%2f00))+(paper)&country=US&oq=((B25D1%2f00))+(paper)+country:US&sort=old
It seems the idea of using paper and/or pasteboard for the striking
surface has been around awhile...
===
How It Began
Jewelers and metal workers used hammers with heads made of rolled
leather prior to WWI. Once the war began, leather was declared a
strategic material and its availability was cut off. As a result,
jewelers looked elsewhere for a material to use and found that paper
rolled tightly made a hammer head which did almost no injury to metal surfaces. In the 1920's pewtersmithing became popular, and the field increased in demand for pewter items. The paper hammers were perfect
for this application They were used until the 1960's for the pewter
hobby, and then forgotten by the 1970's. Most of the paper hammers up
until 1956 were made by two German brothers living in Queens, New York.
After that time, the hammers disappeared from the marketplace.
===
https://accidentalhammer.com/index.php/ct-menu-item-3/ct-menu-item-5
On Thu, 16 Sep 2021 21:21:18 +0100
David Billington <djb@invalid.com> wrote:
<snip>
I'm aware of them and am currently in contact with the couple and haveFirst patent I found with mention of paper was from 1865. so the WWI reference is a bit off too ;-)
ordered one of their paper mallets. The history they state though is
incomplete as they were not aware of the company I'm enquiring about and
paper mallets were far from forgotten by the 1970s as I was using them
in my metalsmithing class in the late 1970s and they still had some as
late as about 2000 when I last spoke with the tutor.
I've not tried searching for patents yet. I did some searches on the
online OSHA database which goes back to 1972 but it's really geared to >knowing the name of the company and there's no guarantee the the
company has the words 'mallet', 'hammer', 'paper' in the name. 'hammer'
and 'mallet' turn up only a single page each for 1972 to 1976 and it was >fairly easy to cross off the various companies mentioned but 'paper'
turns up almost a 1000 records so I've not looked at that much more.
On Thu, 16 Sep 2021 22:18:09 +0100
David Billington <djb@invalid.com> wrote:
<snip>
I've not tried searching for patents yet. I did some searches on theI've searched through a couple old paper catalogs I have and several
online OSHA database which goes back to 1972 but it's really geared to
knowing the name of the company and there's no guarantee the the
company has the words 'mallet', 'hammer', 'paper' in the name. 'hammer'
and 'mallet' turn up only a single page each for 1972 to 1976 and it was
fairly easy to cross off the various companies mentioned but 'paper'
turns up almost a 1000 records so I've not looked at that much more.
more digital versions. Problem with the digital versions is they are
likely too old. The more modern catalogs are too new or hard to come by
due to copyrights still in place. An old McMaster catalog from say
the 1980's might be a good place to look. They still have a nice
selection of Mallets but none with paper heads.
The patent search I linked to worked well but good hits rapidly peter
out. Suspect there wasn't much new innovation to form a patent in the 1900's...
I'm not entirely clear whether your primary interest is in the
history, story of this particular company or procuring Paper Mallets.
Maybe a bit of both ;-)
On Fri, 17 Sep 2021 15:55:56 +0100
David Billington <djb@invalid.com> wrote:
<snip>
Finding the company information should find when they started so wouldI used to oft search at Archive.com for them. You can actually search
help flesh out some of the history. I hadn't thought of old catalogues,
do you have a link for a source.
inside most of them at the site without downloading nowadays. With a
fast internet connection (not here) it should work a treat. Link to
advanced search. Select "texts" for media.
https://archive.org/advancedsearch.php
Here is an example of a much more ambitious search string:
https://archive.org/search.php?query=title%3Acatalogue+AND+-title%3Acourse+AND+mediatype%3Atexts+AND+-scanner%3Agoogle+AND+-subject%3Acollege+AND+-subject%3Aart+AND+-title%3Auniversity+AND+date%3A%5B1800-01-01+TO+1941-01-01%5D&sort=-publicdate&page=2
Still gets a lot of unwanted stuff but should give you some ideas for
weeding less desired stuff out. Also note here in the US "Catalog" is
more commonly used...
I've quite a few saved locally, Hardware, Machinery... usually have to
check the index and then jump to a page (index page and doc pages
are not the same) to see what they offered.
Of course if you happen to know the name of a particular company that
works too ;-)
Finding the company information should find when they started so would
help flesh out some of the history. I hadn't thought of old catalogues,
do you have a link for a source.
Thanks for that I'll have a look at Archive.com . Regarding spelling I
grew up in the US for 12 years but moved back to the UK so had to learn
to spell again. One of my local metal suppliers once said they could get
me aluminum but it was far more expensive than the more readily
available aluminium.
On 16/9/21 10:18 am, David Billington wrote:
On 15/09/2021 23:03, Jim Wilkins wrote:
"David Billington" wrote in message news:shto53$cgp$1@dont-email.me... >>>I would say yes there is a significant difference, I have a couple of
I've used paper mallets and they're the best tool for the job on a soft
metal like pewter (Britannia metal), lead would likely be too damaging
to the surface. The mallets I used had already been in use for some
years and were broken in, apparently when new the paper mallets do need
to be used for a bit to break in the faces of the mallet.
---------------
Do you know if there's a significant difference between a paper and
an end grain wooden hammer (beetle), which is easy to make?
https://blog.lostartpress.com/2013/06/10/the-mallet-and-beetle/
I get good results on thin sheet steel with a hammer with one
plastic and one brass face. Usually the plastic face is enough to
flatten the burr and curl on a shear cut and straighten corrugated
roofing that a fallen branch crumpled, using 1-1/2" or 2" pipe on
sawhorses for the anvil. The brass head is needed only to flatten
tight creases in severe damage. A rubber mallet didn't have enough
authority to shape the roofing to the pipe well enough. The
galvanizing remains intact, areas I fixed many years ago still
haven't rusted.
wooden mallets and find they're prone to denting/bruising whatever
you want to call it whereas the paper mallets were quite resilient in
comparison. The last time I spoke to my old tutor they still had the
odd precious paper mallet but reserved for special work, having
largely been forced to use nylon or other plastic mallets but they
needed to be kept free of dings or other marks which could easily
transfer to the soft work piece.
Interesting discussion. I inherited a small peening hammer with a head
made from the black tip of the horn from some antelope or other. I'm
curious of anyone might recognise this type of hammer?
Clifford Heath
Thanks for that I'll have a look at Archive.com . Regarding spelling I
grew up in the US for 12 years but moved back to the UK so had to learn
to spell again. One of my local metal suppliers once said they could get
me aluminum but it was far more expensive than the more readily
available aluminium.
On Fri, 17 Sep 2021 19:07:59 +0100
David Billington <djb@invalid.com> wrote:
Thanks for that I'll have a look at Archive.com . Regarding spelling IThe Internet, UK Mystery writers and UK Magazines I read help a lot to
grew up in the US for 12 years but moved back to the UK so had to learn
to spell again. One of my local metal suppliers once said they could get
me aluminum but it was far more expensive than the more readily
available aluminium.
better understand these little language quirts :)
On Mon, 20 Sep 2021 20:08:44 +0100
David Billington <djb@invalid.com> wrote:
Searching archive.org has turned up a few references to paper malletsNot surprised. Some catalogs are really good about telling you who made
but not to who made them. The Smithsonian site looks like it might be
useful when/if they get the contents available online as they seem to
have many catalogues but only a synopsis of the content
https://americanhistory.si.edu/collections/search/object/SILNMAHTL_41097 .
the item but a lot of them are not...
I wouldn't hold your breath on the Smithsonian... always funding woes
there.
Sometimes you can find bits and pieces at:
https://books.google.com/
Here (if the link works) is an example of a good hit but not exactly
what you're looking for:
https://www.google.com/books/edition/Form_Emphasis_for_Metalsmiths/QpQgPb-_VDsC?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=%22paper+mallet%22&pg=PA22&printsec=frontcover
I'll keep this matter in mind. I poke around looking for odds & ends
pretty often. If I come across anything of interest I'll pass it on :)
Searching archive.org has turned up a few references to paper mallets
but not to who made them. The Smithsonian site looks like it might be
useful when/if they get the contents available online as they seem to
have many catalogues but only a synopsis of the content >https://americanhistory.si.edu/collections/search/object/SILNMAHTL_41097 .
I'll keep this matter in mind. I poke around looking for odds & ends
pretty often. If I come across anything of interest I'll pass it on :)
On Mon, 20 Sep 2021 16:52:08 -0400
Leon Fisk <lfiskgr@gmail.invalid> wrote:
I'll keep this matter in mind. I poke around looking for odds & endsLink to the "Mallet" listing in an old "Thomas' Register of American Manufacturers and First Hands in all Lines : The Buyers' Guide
pretty often. If I come across anything of interest I'll pass it on :)
1905-1906":
https://archive.org/details/ThomasRegisterOfAmericanManufacturers19051906/page/n705/mode/2up
Might be another source if you could locate some more of these
Registers in a more recent year...
They are still around nowadays:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Register
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