ArtMetal

Michael,

The Foredom hammer handpiece is too light weight to have any real effect on a chasing or repousse tool. They work okay for direct work with small tooling designed to fit the handpiece, but they have neither the mass nor the power to move a 1/4" square piece of steel 4" long with any authority. Short answer; nope, won't work.

I use a couple different air hammers for chasing and repousse on larger pieces. I have a few of the "muffler gun" type air hammers/chisels that take standard .401" round shank tooling. My favorite one is an Ingersoll-Rand with the quick-release chuck and feathering trigger.

I make my own tooling for the air chisels using cheap chisel bits from Harbor Freight Tools as the basis, with forged and/or welded heads applied to the HF tool shanks. One issue with these tools is that the tool is free to rotate ad lib, so you have to use a handle on the chisel itself to control the rotation. On some of my tooling I weld on a side handle and on others I just use a pair of Vise Grips to grip the shank. The Vise Grips that are designed to hold hex nuts are the best for this, I've found.

I also have an air chisel that uses 1/2" square shank tooling that I find very handy for heavy engraving, chasing and repousse work. It uses a driver handle similar to that found on needle scalers, but has a spring chuck to hold the 1/2" square-shanked tooling. Being square shanked, they don't rotate and so are very controllable. The tool has a paddle type control, but I use a foot pedal and a flow control valve to regulate the power of the tool, leaving my hands free to guide the tool more accurately than I could if I was also trying to run the air with my hand. I sommetimes do the same with the .401 shank muffler guns, too.

I make most of my tooling myself, using S-7 tool steel or sometimes 4140, depending on what is available and the type of tool. For some of the tooling I use H-13 so that I can use it on hot work without losing the heat treatment. For the hot work chisels and tools I generally make them about a foot long, to get my hands away from some of the heat. You still need pretty stout gloves, though.

I know of a couple of guys who use the bigger chipping hammers for really heavy repousse and chasing work, but I've never tried one myself. Heck, I suppose you could use a 90# pavement breaker too, but I just don't do work on that scale and I doubt I could stand to run one for long anyway. All air hammers are really noisy and require that you wear good hearing protection in addition to the normal eye protection and face shield to protect against flying bits. For running the muffler guns, a pair of gloves with the gel-filled palms takes a lot of the fatigue out of running the tool.