How To Use Bench Blocks

Hi there. In this video, I am going to tell you about bench blocks. We use them when we are working with wire and sheet metal, for hammering and texturing, and I will show you a few examples and how to use them.
So here I have a couple of styles of bench blocks and also this tool, which is a type of bench block but it can be used in a couple of different ways. This is very common style of bench block. It is a four-inch square and three quarter inch deep, about three-pound of hunk of stainless steel. It's just flat on all six sides, it's quite heavy, and you can use it for hammering sheet metal, for hammering wire, anytime that you want to harden it. If you want to flatten it, you would use a chasing hammer, flatten the wire, or perhaps like the texture that I have on this metal. You could use a texturing hammer and hammer on here. And it's just a great surface meant for hammering on.
And this is very hard, it's sturdy. It's going to last you a long time. You will notice that I have one side that is a bit pitted and such, and then I have another side that is a little bit smoother. It's a good idea to keep one side good so that if you are hammering something that you want to keep nice and smooth, if you do it on a side that has pits, those are going to transfer to your metal. So it's a good idea to put like a mark with a sharpy or something on one side that you are going to keep that side nice.
This is another bench block that I used for years before I got the big one. It's got a textured hammer into it, but I don't mind that since most of my pieces are textured, and use it the same way. It's just a surface to hammer on. And depending on the type of hammer you use, which I will talk about in other videos, if you are using a metal hammer on a metal bench block, then you are going to be flattening and stretching and deforming your metal. If you use a nylon hammer or rawhide mallet on metal, then you are just going to be hardening it and changing the shape of it.
And by the way, if you see, there is a little bit of rust on here. You can just use some very fine steel wool and polish it up, and that will come right off. So this will last you for years and years. Now this cute little mini anvil has a couple of features that the bench block doesn't. It has these curved edges, the horn of the anvil, so that if I want it to bend something round and hammer it, I can do it on there and I would have different tapers depending on which part of the horn I worked on. It also has this hole, which is nice for putting in end of a piece of wire and then bending it over at a 90-degree angle.
Another tool that's really great when you are using bench blocks is this leather sandbag. You can put your bench block on there, either one, and it helps dampen the noise and it helps keep down the reverberation. The family appreciates the dampening the sound from hammering. But you can also hammer right on the leather sandbag. If I would hammer on the leather with my round hammer, you could see I have started to bend and curve that and you can use that to make curve shapes and also to harden a piece without actually stretching it and flattening it. I would hammer this on the bench block, you can see this end I started to flatten because it was metal on metal. But this end, I just hammer it.
In fact I can use this to curve it and shape it, and you could see that this isn't getting flattened. So it really depends on which hammer you are using in combination with which bench block. So the leather sandbag is nice because it kind of grips and holds on to your pieces. So those are just a few things you might find helpful to know about bench blocks. They do come in other materials. Rubber bench blocks do a similar thing as the leather sandbag, dampening the sound and also helping you to hammer without flattening. So happy creating.

[@muracockatoo]

Wow, such wonderful instructional videos, well presented, easy, short and I can see everything in the video.Just superb!

[@bettyswinford5886]

Just found you and I am having a great time learning .I thank you for sharing. I love making earrings.

[@Karibee61]

Thank you so much for making and sharing this video; boy did this help.😊

[@glossydemarco358]

Hi, can you hammer on a rubber block?

[@ArtsyLadyCrafter]

Where did you get your leather sandbag and is there a homemade alternate? TFS such great tips!