A mallet is a striking tool with a head softer than the workpiece, used at the bench when the goldsmith needs to deform metal without leaving the marks a steel hammer would inflict. The faces are typically rawhide, wood, nylon, rubber or plastic, depending on the operation. Common types in the trade include the rawhide mallet for forming and stretching, the boxwood or beechwood mallet for general benchwork, the nylon-faced mallet for hammering metal flat without surface damage, and the soft-rubber mallet for adjusting finished pieces and seating without scratching plating.

Mallets are essential when raising sheet over a mandrel — for example, sizing a ring upward by stretching it on a steel ring mandrel, where a steel hammer would mar the inside of the band. They are also used in chasing, in seating riveted joints, and in any context where the metal must be moved without imparting a hammer signature. The selection of face material is governed by what should yield under impact: harder than the metal and the work bears witness marks; softer, and the energy is absorbed cleanly into the workpiece.

For the working jeweller, two or three mallets in different face hardnesses cover virtually every benchtop need, with replacement faces routinely substituted as the rawhide or nylon wears.