When it is allowed to approach the nail it converts the potential energy in to kinetic energy.

Your kinetic energy is greatest, just before you hit the trampoline on the way down and when you leave the trampoline surface on the way up. Your kinetic energy is 0 when you reach the height of your jump and begin to descend and when are on the trampoline, about to propel upwards.

Since the nail is displaced inside the wood by the force applied by the sledge hammer, clearly, work is being done by the hammer. This ability of the hammer to do work is associated to the position of the hammer above the nail. Thus, it is said that the hammer has gravitational potential energy.

Uses. Besides for peening (surface hardening by impact), the ball-peen hammer is useful for many tasks, such as striking punches and chisels (usually performed with the flat face of the hammer). The peening face is useful for rounding off edges of metal pins and fasteners, such as rivets.

The cross peen or cross pein hammer is the hammer most commonly used by blacksmiths and metalworkers. Cross peen hammers are particularly used in riveting. They are ideal for spreading, and the hammer can simply be flipped from the flat end of the head to the wedge end of the head when more precision is needed.

Sledgehammer

: a narrow round-edged peen of a hammer that is parallel to the handle.

A cross pein is a “blade” that is perpendicular to the handle. The cross pein can be sharp, rounded, flat, smooth or textured. A cross pein hammer can be used in metal work, stone work, blacksmithing or woodworking. A staight pein is parallel to the handle.

A soft-faced hammer or mallet is a hammer designed to offer driving force without damaging surfaces. They also reduce the force transmitted back to the arm or hand of the user, by temporarily deforming more than a metal hammer would.

Soft-faced hammers are used for metal forming because they are able to bend and shape metal without causing surface damage. Surface damage is problematic for metals or finishes that are intended to be seen and have an aesthetic purpose. In these situations, soft-faced hammers are preferred.

Manufacturers harden a hammer head for strength and durability via tempering processes. We’ll review the parts of a hammer and their intended purpose. Then we’ll review how to make a hammer head and best practices when implementing such a tool.

Wooden mallets are usually used in carpentry to knock wooden pieces together, or to drive dowels or chisels. A wooden mallet will not deform the striking end of a metal tool, as most metal hammers would.

As well as being gentle enough to assemble your work, a nylon faced hammer is excellent as a general woodworking mallet. It excels for morticing, and as dirty and gruff as this sounds, it combines wonderfully with a chisel that has a plastic handle, like my Marples.

Chisel hammer is the term used by Paul Sellers to describe the hammer that he recommends for use in striking the end of the chisel handle and assembling joinery. It can be made from nylon, steel or brass. The type Paul Sellers recommends is sold as a ‘nylon hammer’, ‘assembly hammer’ or even a ‘soft-faced hammer’.

Wood carving mallets are round to increase the amount of surface area you can use to strike the chisel so you can focus more on your work. All the weight isn’t in the head of the mallet, like that of a traditional bench mallet, but also in the handle.

The defining characteristic of the carvers mallet is its round shape. This tool is specifically designed for driving gouges and also works wonderfully for finessing a bench chisel where the name of the game is precision.

The mallet is meant to be fairly hefty, with a long handle to do some serious pounding if need be. For more delicate work, a smaller version with a shorter handle would be more appropriate. The handle thickness is reduced to 3/4″ in the area of the grip. The part that goes through the head is left at 1″ thick.

Wooden Mallet