Masonry Magazine February 2008 Page. 27
Hard Cap Safety Tools
Some tools, like the new line of chisels from Baltimore Toolworks in Baltimore called Hard Cap Safety Tools, offer improved safety along with a new design for increased performance.
"The design of Hard Cap was focused on how to make a safer struck tool. People pound on these for hours every day. You end up with a mushroom on the tool itself. If you get a glancing blow, the chips come off at ballistic speeds," says Harry "Downie" McCarty, who helped design the tools and is a third-generation owner of the company. "Sometimes these chips find their way into people's eyes, which is why we wear safety glasses. Hard Cap was intended to mitigate the mushrooming heads that eventually lead to spawling and chips flying around."
Hard Cap tools transfer the energy from a hammer blow down the shaft of the chisel, no matter where it's hit.
"You get an increase of 15 percent in production, because the person using the chisel has more confidence and can hit harder, and more energy goes down the shaft," McCarty says.
Reduced vibration, increased comfort
AS MASONRY CONTRACTORS KNOW, the less a tool vibrates, the more comfortable it is to use. Vibration, even in chisels, can eventually lead to debilitating injuries. That's why some manufacturers are offering hardscaping tools with almost no vibration.
Hard Cap tools have a polymer cap and a cushioned grip that reduces shock to users by 90 percent, McCarty says. The company went through about 25 polymers before finding one that would absorb shock, yet be tough enough to withstand hammer blows and resist oil and grease.
Chisel Whizard
"It's an extraordinarily tough tool," he says. Barre, Vt.-based Trow & Holden Co. Inc. has a new tool called the Chisel Whizard that holds a chisel for the user.
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