Perfection with every strike

13 juni 2023

Gardening and landscaping professional Florian Otto trusts in Halder soft-face mallets

Sustainable, durable and ready to take on any kind of challenge

Florian Otto lives and breathes his job as a gardening and landscaping expert. He and his team have already enhanced the beauty of numerous gardens in and around the town of Xanten. Their indispensable companions for every project are the soft-face mallets from Erwin Halder KG.

The garden has always been Florian Otto's favoured place – ever since his days as a child. No wonder then that he turned his passion into a career by becoming an independent master contractor for gardening and landscaping in the ancient Roman town of Xanten in the Lower Rhine region. Visitors to his website “Florians Garden World“ florians-gartenwelt.de), and his channels on Instagram (instagram.com/florians_gartenwelt/) and Youtube (youtube.com/c/FlorianOtto-Florians-Gartenwelt) can share his enthusiasm with scores of other followers and benefit from his useful practical tips on garden design. After starting out by himself as an independent contractor, Florian Otto now works with a team of five employees and has already transformed scores of gardens into oases of comfort and well-being. During every project - from planting greenery to paving and building stairs to setting up fences and dry masonry walls - he relies on his trusted companions: the Halder soft-face mallets.

His familiarity and appreciation of Halder’s soft-face mallets go all the way back to his apprenticeship: “I have had much experience working with a great variety of hammers made by different manufacturers. The Halder soft-face mallets offer exceptionally balanced weight distribution. They fit snugly into your hand. This lets you place every strike perfectly and work fast. Their range ensures that you will find the best-matching hammer for every job.” The hammer he relies on for most of his projects today is the SIMPLEX soft-face mallet with inserts made of rubber composition and superplastic and diameters of 60 mm and 80 mm. “One example of a hammer that is particularly well-suited for laying slabs that break easily is the SIMPLEX with an insert combination of TPE-mid and TPE-soft and an aluminium housing”, declares Florian Otto.

The SIMPLEX soft-face mallet is always Florian Otto’s first choice when it comes to working with natural stones. “The grey TPE-mid is ideal for this material as it does not leave dark marring on the bright natural stone. I have never had an issue with the no-marring inserts of the SIMPLEX – no matter which material I used them on. They leave no marks. A tremendous asset in their favour!” This helps avoid unnecessary cleaning and discussions with the customer. The no-marring inserts are – just as all other versions – easy to retrofit.

This is why Florian Otto gives Halder’s soft-face mallets the highest marks in the sustainability category: “Sadly, our throw-away society has made it commonplace to simply dispose of things instead of repairing them or swapping out individual components. Worse yet, we often do not even have a choice. Not so with Halder”, exults Florian Otto. The modular design – following the so-called SIMPLEX principle – makes it possible to exchange all components – handle, housing halves, and inserts – individually and with great ease and speed. “Better still, all components are of premium quality. The inserts experience next to no wear and will stand up to hundreds of thousands of strikes. In all of my career, I had to replace an insert merely once or twice”, adds the master gardening and landscaping professional.

Aside from the SIMPLEX soft-face mallet measuring 60 mm and 80 mm in diameter, the team around Florian Otto works with other Halder hammers as well: When working with bricks, for instance, the experts resort to the smaller versions of the SIMPLEX soft-face mallets. Florian Otto: “When we need to drive in metal stakes and cord irons, we put our trust in the non-rebound SUPERCRAFT mallet. Allowing you to strike with extremely high force, the hammer lets you drive cord irons into the ground with great ease and speed.” The secret of its high impact force lies inside its tubular head: The energy of the steel shot housed in the head is transferred with a slight delay when the contact surface hits the workpiece. The reduced rebound allows the impact energy to be absorbed with perfect efficiency, resulting in extremely powerful impact. Other advantages SUPERCRAFT mallets possess over ordinary steel mallets are the reduced strain they put on the user’s joints and the low noise level they generate.

Florian Otto has also tested the SIMPLEX hammer with its extra short wooden handle: “The test yielded exceptional results. The short handle is a particularly good alternative when you do not require a great deal of impact force.” When you tap the stones in place, the handle no longer hits the ground. By the way, those who opt for the rubber insert with “stand-up” will be able to quickly and effortlessly grab the soft-face mallet and work in a much more ergonomic and back-friendly way. Florian Otto is convinced: “Whichever version you choose – Halder soft-face mallets are simply the best!“

The self-employed master gardening and landscaping expert Florian Otto is fully convinced of the capabilities the Halder soft-face mallets have to offer.