Review on YIYITOOLS 1LB Dead Blow Hammer- Red, Mallet Machinist Tools Unibody Molded Checkered Grip Spark And Rebound Resistant by John Collins

I purchased the single, 1 lb hammer. For the price point, I have been rather impressed.The weight is good, the shot helps to convey energy, and the material strikes a perfect balance between being soft enough it won't mar even relatively soft surfaces (in my case pine and douglas fir) while being durable enough it doesn't leave marks or break down under fairly heavy work, unlike a typical rubber mallet.I bought this to use with chisels for woodworking, and had meant it to be a stand-in until I could afford a high-quality woodworking mallet designed for the purpose. It has now become my go-to hammer for anything other then driving nails or re-shaping metal (as in the kind of reshaping that requires an anvil).After building a king bed frame and using this hammer for all the mortise and tenon work and coaxing the joints together, I even went ahead and bought a second just to have a backup.I can not speak to long term durability yet, but it has shown no signs of wear after tens of hours of use, and has held up substantially better than any rubber-headed mallet I have ever owned.It is also a much better option other soft-headed mallets I have tried, because there is zero bounce, so all of the force goes into the strike. Additionally, the shot in the head significantly reduces the effort required, and for chisel work I don't really have to use force, even when tapping the back of a chisel that is horizontal to the workpiece. Simply get a little momentum behind it, and the hammer does the rest.At the same time, it is also superior for this kind of thing to narrow-headed hammers because it distributes the force evenly over the face when using it for things such as tapping a tenon into a mortise or fitting a half lap joint together (or coaxing the pieces apart after a dry fit). In addition to avoiding direct damage to even soft woods, this distributed force avoids accidental cracks or breaks.It also does not leave any rubber behind on the surface that is struck.I'm not someone who often reviews a product, but this one deserves it, I think. If you are looking for an inexpensive hammer that will work as a good all-around tool for woodworking on a budget, I cannot recommend this hammer enough. Similarly, while I haven't used it for metalworking yet, I would definitely use this instead of the rubber mallets I might typically turn to if I needed to "coax" a part on my car or anything similar.