Thor Soft Faced Hammer 31.712r

Good for all manner of chisel work in joinery, plus soft-blow 'guidance'. Likewise, useful in leathercraft for leather punching irons etc. Remove the standard 'varnish' finish with a card scraper, liberally apply BLO, and you're set to go. Both faces are replaceable, and if it's good enough for Paul Sellers, it's good enough for me.

It is a hammer, it has a handle and a heavy bit at one end. Why do you need one? Well I bought one cos I liked the look of it but it was really useful when a double glazed unit failed. Being a good DIYer and too tight to pay someone else I bought a chisel (think strong scraper) and removed the bead from my window and swapped out the glass. Here the Thor hammer comes into use - the face is hard but not metal hard, more plastic hard and is ideal to use when putting the beads in around the upvc window. A few taps and done, if I had used a normal metal faced hammer there would be dints on the bead. I have used the Thor hammer on a few other jobs but have never used the rubber end, only the plastic. Anyway it did the job and I didn't have to call a glazer to come and rip me off.

Bought this hammer on the recommendation of Paul Sellers (well known fella in woodworking circles). I am very glad I did as I have tried normal hammers, fancy and expensive brass faced hammers, wood mallets and rubber mallets for striking my chisels with and while all worked none felt particularly right.The Thor gives me exactly what I am looking for when doing chisel work. Depending on the cut I can chose my strike to be short and sharp by using the hard white plastic face or if I am looking to drive the chisel a bit deeper the grey rubber faced end really delivers the force.Most of my chisel work is when I am creating dovetail joints and I have found that less of my pins or pieces are breaking with this hammer as opposed to the other hammers / mallets I was using and I suspect the grey faced rubber face has everything to do with this improvement. Both faces have also come in very handy as a excellent "persuader" for tight fitting joints again mostly being dovetails.Built quality of the hammer appears to be good but really a whole lot I can say about it as it is after all a hammer with two faces... it feels well balanced in the hand and the chrome of the hammer head looks nice enough if you are into "pretty" tools. As I said above I enjoy having the dual faces of this hammer.As suggested by Paul Sellers I roughed up the faces on both sides to avoid slippage on the strike of a chisel. I did this using a standard file and seems to work very well.Only negative point is that it is a bit pricey for what it is and can't felt feeling that a tenner would be closer to the mark for a fair price.

Love it.First used these years ago. Really handy tool to have around. I use it regularly to pound on the back of my axe to split kindling from logs, with a plugging chisel for mortar removal, for pounding on the back of cat's paws pry bars, ...The nylon head is getting way more use than the soft face, which I might swap out for a super-plastic version.Also, Paul Sellers loves them for chisel work at the woodwork bench (I quite like them for this too). He must have increased their sales massively. Just shows - quality will always have a following.Why not support British hand tool makers? There are not all that many left now (if you want to be depressed, compare with the number of quality tool makers in Germany).Good job Thor.

It's a soft hammer, what more can I say? Generally well-made and robust, as you would expect from Thor, but lacks the sophistication of some of their older hammers that I have used. The handle could do with a little more wasting at its neck and waist, to give it a little more spring and a more secure grip. Where the handle projects from the head could also do with a bit more finishing, as an awful lot of wood has been left projecting. (I ground this back myself - no charge.)

perfect soft-faced mallet. i've been using a Wiha 40mm schonhammer for awhile now, which is also a great mallet, but the Thor 712 is a bit more compact and balanced, with a less "top-heavy" feel to it, and the faces seem indestructible. you can't go wrong with this item. strongly recommend to anyone.

Worthy of a good review.In all seriousness it’s rare to find a soft faced hammer that doesn’t fall apart when you put some force behind it. Easily and cheaply replaceable faces, soft enough not to damage and one a bit firmer if the item is sharp.Spot on and not stupidly more than the much worse competitors.Worth the extra in every sense.Thor himself would be proud.

Brought on the recommendation of Paul Sellers, and it's excellent. Much better than a wooden mallet when using it with chisels as it has more weight and seems to generate more power when you need it. The nylon side is great for working with chisels, and the rubber side is great for persuading joints to go together without damaging the work piece. The rubber side is also good when you don't want to much welly with chisels. I procrastinated for about a year thinking I don't really need it and my mallet works just fine. How wrong I was. Don't hesitate, just buy it, you won't be disappointed.