I finally made it up to Shreveport this weekend for a hammer-in. Saturday morning I went to the Tandy store a tried out the round faced mauls, and the hammer shaped poly ones. Unfortunately, they only had the 1lb. hammer shape and the 3lb. round faced ones in stock.
My sole reason for going was to try out the round faced variety, as I had never held one. I can say without hesitation that I liked it a lot. I tried it on numerous tooling stamps, including some of the larger 3D ones and it handled great. Due to forging, I have good eye-hand coordination, so that may have helped, but I could not tell any difference or drawback to using it.
The regular hammer shaped one is no different than a real hammer, but the 16oz. was way too light for me. I am sure the lighter hammers have their place but IMHO any poly hammer would do just as well as the high dollar Al Stohman.
I didn't buy one, as the 3lb. one was $120. That is a lot for a hobbiest like myself to drop on a tool to play with. It wasn't a matter of affording it, but more of justifying it, which I was unable to do. Maybe at some point.
My original post was to get feedback on the maul style hammers. This post is to share my perspective for others who are reluctant to purchase the round faced mauls, for fear of not liking them.
Unless you have never hammered anything, I don't think anyone would have trouble transitioning to these mauls. It felt great in hand.