Making a mallet

[woodtrapper]

I was wondering if any one has any ideas on making a mallet for larger projects.I recently broke a mallet I had for a while and thought I would make one.Sure I could buy one but I want something that will take the abuse but alsogood for a little tap.Thanks,Davy.Hammer

[Ashbys]

I have seen some of the old ones, from the 1800's most of them looked to be black walnut or hickory .

making one should not be too much trouble, just look for good wood and watch your grain pattern.

[heineda]

Hello,

If you have access to, or own a lathe, it's very easy to turn a nice mallet. I turned an extra one this summer using an old wooden baseball bat I bought at a garage sale for $.50. I cut the bat in half, and used the fat end for the striking part, and the thinner end for the handle. Works great, and the price is right!!!

Happy Carving,
Dan Heine

[Just Carving]

Something quick can easily be made from a brass pipe reducer fitting--maybe 2 1/2"x1 1/2"--with a piece of 1 1/2" hardwood (red oak) dowel shaped to fit and epoxied in the 1 1/2" end of the fitting. Overall length would be about 9".

Otherwise, you can turn one down on a lathe if you have one, or maybe rough carve and file to shape. Here's a link to one that Chris pye has on his website.

http://www.chrispye-woodcarving.com/...ts_mallet.html

Convert numbers to inches by dividing by 25.4, and you can probably round them off to nearest 1/8 inch.

[brushpilecarvings]

Here's one I carved out of sassafras with a rotary tool. It's not pretty, but it gets the job done and feels good in my hand

[dart]

I have access to firewood. I also have a lathe. I made a mallet from a piece of Maple firewood. Then warmed it in the oven and dipped it in hot wax. That was 20+ years ago. It's still in like new shape. I made the carver style mallet. One 8 " to 10" long piece of wood with a nice handle.

[slivers&dust]

20 years ago, when I came to work at the monument shop, I found this old homemade mallet in a box of old stone carving tools.

[Arnold-Smith]

Davy I have made a mallet or two .one I took a milk shake cup and put a hole in bottom. I turned a handle and inserted in bottom of cup and then filled cup with two part casting. The next one I turned iron wood. then turned handle and then inserted handle into iron wood. For
the small one I used the small cup taking out the bottom. I turned the handle to fit snugg in bottom of cup, then boared a one inch hole in the handle, inserted a three inch steel bolt in hantle and fill cup with casting. I used a latex mold and filled with casting. on number two. They all work well.

Arnold

[Thomp]

I made several,

I went to Lowe's looked through the cast off crates in the parking lot and found a really dark dense rough cut mahogany to cherry mistory wood 3"x3"x4' section, cleaned it up with table saw, made a glue up..
turned it down on the lathe to 4" head bell shape & handle with big knob on the end of the handle have used it 10 years so far, not even marked..
mad one from mullburry, nice and heavy,,

iv made smaller one by digging root ball and all out the ground on a dead dogwood tree the trunk was 4 inches through,
cleaned up roots and turned root ball to largest diameter i could get out of the swollen root section, using that for the striking surface, i turned down a handle from the attached trunk it was near dry i sanded and burnished it to a dark scorch and i coated it with wax,
its lighter now than the glue up, and marked from using it with too hard of stroke, but its not cracked or split..

[woodtrapper]

Wow, those are all great Ideas.I have a lot of ironwood planks but no acess to a lathe.Thanks again.This gives me a good start.