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, but it also reduces the force available to drive the cutting edge of a chisel.
Rawhide mallets, which may employ rawhide covering a steel head, or simply consist of rolled-up rawhide, are used for leather work, jewelery, and assembling electric motors and delicate machinery.
Plastic mallets are used especially in leather work, sheet metal work and jewelery.
All mallets on this page are made in the USA.