A percussion mechanism contains a guide tube, an exciter piston, a hammer, a pneumatic chamber for coupling the hammer to the motion of the exciter piston, a striker, and a seat for the striker. The hammer has a striking point, defined by a striking surface of the striker when the striker lies against the seat. A check valve has an outlet opening and a closing mechanism for closing the check valve against an air flow from the interior of the guide tube. The outlet opening is arranged in such a way that the outlet opening is closed by the hammer during striking operation and otherwise is open.