You can use mallets for everything from the gentle persuasion of parts to tuning up your neighbor's Chrysler because he parked too close to your driveway again. Different applications require different types of heads and shafts, and I've just found a company that makes all of them, the mallet motherlode.

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UK-based manufacturer Thor Hammer Company Limited--named way back in 1920 for the Norse god of thunder, not the more recent Marvel comic character--produces every kind of mallet, maul and hammer you can think of in a wide variety of materials: Aluminum, brass, copper, hardwood, water buffalo hide, lead, nylon, rubber and plastic. And in a variety of lengths and weights, too.

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I know what you're thinking: Water buffalo hide? Apparently these are prized in the jewelry and sheet metal working trades, as they can transmit the required force without marring the material.

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Here's a glimpse of their production process where you can see how they work the buffalo hide:

To chop dovetail waste, I'm currently using a perfectly serviceable English carpenter's mallet made from beech. Eventually it's going to wear out, as hardwood mallets do, and when it does I've got my eye on Thor's copper- or brass-headed mallets. They sell replacement handles too, and I like the idea of a forever tool.

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