Can You Use a Regular Hammer for Metal Stamping?

If you are familiar with metal stamping at home, probably you have this question yourself or you heard someone saying can you use a regular hammer for metal stamping?

For beginners who want to personalize their jewelry or metal work as a hobby or with the intention to sell their artwork, this might be a very common as well as a very useful question. At the first glance, one might find using a regular hammer a very easy and cost-effective way. But is it really worth it? Will it work properly?

Keeping these in mind we prepared this tiny guide to answer your questions to make things easier for you. So, keep reading to find out your answers and refine your metal stamping skills. Also, if you are just a beginner looking for some useful info, this article is what you need to gain some basics and make it to the goal of your metal stamping adventure.

Check this Relevant Guide: Top 7 Best Metal Stamping Hammer Reviews of 2021

Getting Familiar with the Stamping Hammers

Generally speaking, the stamping hammer is a little bit smaller than an average toolkit hammer. The benefit of using a stamping hammer is that you get more controlled strikes. However, to achieve the best results, you will need to select a pretty heavy hammer.

Also, there is a variation of hammer tips. The use of different hammer tips depends on the custom jewelry you are trying to make. Here are the four renowned hammer tips that you can use for various types of metal stamped jewelry.

Brass heads: If you are looking for a hammer tip to strike metal stamps, brass heads are recommended. Brass is a comparatively softer metal than steel so it gives you advantages on striking the stamps without damaging them. Also, brass absorbs the impact caused by hitting. It will also help to make deeper impressions.

Nylon heads: If you are looking for a soft head hammer to straighten deformed metal, these types are ideal for the job. You can also make the deformed metals smooth without marring it.

Steel heads: When it comes to steel heads, you get a freedom of choice. They are available in several styles including ball-peen hammers and chasing hammers. The rollback of steel is that, when you strike the metal plates it transfers energy back to your hammer. This can cause the hammer to bounce back after every hit. As a result, you may get ghost or skipped impressions.

Texturing hammers: These types of hammers also have steel heads. For this reason, you can add textures directly to sheet metals and stamping blanks.

Depending on your work you can choose any of these hammers for your stamped metal jewelry. There are plenty of brands out there in the market. You can try products of different brands and determine which one works best for your custom jewelry.

Can You Use a Regular Hammer for Metal Stamping?

Okay, you are now familiar with all the hammers that you can use for making your jewelry. But there are big question marks still remaining. What about regular hammers? Will they really work? Let’s check it out.

We are putting aside all the pros and cons. Let’s answer the question first. Can we use it? Yes, you can use a regular toolkit hammer. Yaay!

But before you take out a regular nail hammer from your household tool kit, keep one thing in mind that you are stamping a small piece of metal, not hammering a nail into wood.

For hammering nails, you have to make the first strike as accurate as possible. After you make a precise strike, the nail will be sitting on the wood plank or any surface. Then you can relax and strike it easily by following the methods and motion similar to the first strike.

But in the case of stamping metal for making jewelry, you have to use metal stamps and they need more precise strikes. So, using a regular hammer increases the chance of hitting your hand or even missing the stamp because you will be unable to get more precise strikes with it.

So, to reach a conclusion we say, you can go with a regular flat face hammer for metal stamping. That will still be comfortable and effective. However, don’t use a nylon jewelry hammer or a rawhide hammer on your jewelry stamps; they will end up getting torn quickly.

And if you are looking for the right hammer for metal stamping, you should go for brass head hammer.

The Bottom Line

Metal stamping can be a hobby as well as a source of sharing your ideas and making money on marketplaces like Etsy or Amazon Handmade.

To give professional quality finish to your item, you should always use high-quality tools. But if you want to make the best use of tools that are handy and cost efficient, you can use tools like regular hammer. But remember that the brass head hammer is the best for metal stamping.

So, keep all the information in mind and start practicing to achieve the best outcomes by making the best use of regular handy tools.