Tool Review: Dema's Brass Hammer

Status
Not open for further replies.

BKHam

Bradley
User
i own one of these but get nothing for this review. Dema has no idea who i am.

you can buy them on esty here: https://www.etsy.com/shop/DemasWoodShop?ref=l2-shopheader-name

i bought one in cocobolo but he has a variety of choices including burls and exotics. i saw the youtube video of him making these and thought it was cool. i later bought one because i wanted something different for chisel work. i don't care for a joiner's mallet. i find them too big and often hard to hit the flat face squarely. so i did most of my chisel work with a carvers round mallet. i like that but i found myself hitting pretty hard. i wanted something more compact with more mass so my swing could be shorter and more efficient.

here is what i bought:
attachment.php

attachment.php


[FONT=&quot]Dimensions:[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Brass head: 1.25" hex diameter, 2.5" long[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Handle: Roughly 1.5" at the widest part, 3.5" long, resin impregnated[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Weight: 16oz head plus the handle [/FONT]
[FONT=Graphik Webfont, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, Roboto, Droid Sans, Segoe UI, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif]Finish: the wood is put in a pressure chamber so the resin impregnates it, expelling the oxygen and voids. so the finish isn't actually a finish, its built in. then he Buffs, Polishes and then carnauba wax. [/FONT]

[FONT=Graphik Webfont, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, Roboto, Droid Sans, Segoe UI, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif]i recommend this product with no reservations. the mass is great. simple flick of the wrist hammers thru the end grain of most woods. i use it for dovetailing and my hammer arm loves me for it. just like using a brass hammer to set a plane blade, the slight taps are surprisingly accurate and controllable. the handle is a nice satin now that it has some usage. after several projects and getting banged around on the bench, still looks pretty new. the brass shows some indention but they are slight and its okay, its solid brass.

[/FONT]this tool is made here in the USA by a guy just like us.

i've done two of these so far, the first one on a Dewalt router i just bought. not sure if anyone likes this but i'll prob do a few more on some of my fav / not so fav tools.

bh
 

Attachments

  • 20180918_160956.jpg
    20180918_160956.jpg
    266.3 KB · Views: 495

Mike Davis

Mike
Corporate Member
My BIL made me a brass hammer head about that size, maybe a little longer. I turned a traditional length handle for it.

After 30 years maybe I could make a new handle more like that and repurpose it.
 

Tarhead

Mark
Corporate Member
Do you really think that in the history of hammers he was the first to make a stubby handle? Maybe. But there's not a lot new under the sun when it comes to using a heavy piece of metal to hit something. 
Looks like a blatant copy of the Tite-Hammer design to me. I wouldn't be happy if I fed my family by designing, manufacturing and selling a specialty tool and someone did that. Sure, it's not a sophisticated tool, but I guess I'm old fashioned when it comes to this kind of stuff. My idea, my design, my property.
 

danmart77

Dan
Corporate Member
Mark
I hear some of what your saying. There are lots of these hammers on the market and more to come. They are not do-able for sale and profit if you don't have some type of milling machine.

With a metal lathe you could pump these out and I wonder if you would break even on the tooling?

Its hard to tell where the line is these days with so much information, photos and debate what you can duplicate and sell?

Its touchy. I am building a small table that was used in a class I gave back in the late 1980s to give students an example to refer to during the week long course. One of the students took the plans and built an exact copy and sent some photos in to FWW.

The table photo was put in the magazine as part of a short comparison of curly maple and curly cherry differences. When I first saw the photo, I wondered which one of the group decided to take credit for the table design and plans?? Then forgot about it.

Years later a person walked in my shop and asked about the Nakashima Conoid chair in walnut and maple. I did a step by step WIP on the chair build and I was literally "ambushed" by the disciples of George Nakashima. At no time in the process did I mention thoughts on selling these in a production mode.

Chairs and hammers have something in common: there's tons of them out there and it seems to be pretty easy to modify it in some small way to avoid legal troubles.

I would defer to Patlaw on that one.

I'm gettin' worried now. I think I got the idea to turn these mallets from some picture I saw of an Irish potato smasher??

ch_5_.JPG


The clamp below is a copy of boatbuilding clamp we used in a shop I worked in as a teenager. We had about a hundred of them piled up next to lobster traps going out the door. The ones we made had leather squares from the shoe store scraps instead of a hinge.



347697-438x.jpg


Time to go do some work in the shop.​
 

BKHam

Bradley
User
as far as intellectual property goes, glen drake's most popular item, the marking gauge, has features that exist in all his competitors. i'm sure he wasn't the first person to come up with the wheel style marking gauge. this isn't saw stop vs bosch, where a very specific action on a very specific machine was at dispute. this is a version of the oldest tool on the planet. a million variations. a hammer is ubiquitous. if glen drake wants to copyright and take legal action, go for it. I don't think it would hold up.

the internet goes to a strangely critical place, even in friendly confines such as nc woodworker.

my original point...adjusted: whether you go with glen drake or dema or you build one yourself, i recommend a compact, high mass hammer for your hand work.
 

patlaw

Mike
Corporate Member
If Glen Drake wants to copyright and take legal action, go for it.
That would be patent rather than copyright, and it's too late for him to obtain patent protection if his product has been on sale for longer than a year.
 

BKHam

Bradley
User
That would be patent rather than copyright, and it's too late for him to obtain patent protection if his product has been on sale for longer than a year.

i think you missed my second to last sentence on this string becoming strangely critical.
 

NCGrimbo

NCGrimbo
Corporate Member
i think the original poster should change the title of this thread to "Political discussion of copyright law".

Can a mod lock this thread to prevent tempers from flaring?
 

allisnut

New User
Adam
I probably contributed to the critical thinking, and I apologize. It is a neat tool, good to know it is effective, was surprised at the price but good for him.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Premier Sponsor

Our Sponsors

LATEST FOR SALE LISTINGS

Top