Resorting to mallet tool... advice?

[LBlake]

Ok, the piece of cherry I am using feels a lot like rock maple, and I have a rather large and deep spoon bowl to carve, so I thought I would try a mallet tool. I haven't used one before... seems to be going ok, but wondered if anyone has any warnings or tips. Still looks pretty slow-going, but easier on my wrist. Is that about how it should be? Thanks for any advice!

[brent]

I tried a pice of walnut burl years ago. Drilled it out some in the center to relieve some of the stresses and to also remove some of the wood. Took 45 hrs. to carve it out enough and still had some splits to show up. I hope the cherry you're carving isn't that hard.

[mobjack68]

The idea with the mallet is....let the mallet do the work. Clamp you work so it is solid, best you can, Hold the chisel, tap the tool handle and guide the tool and tap, tap, tap.....take small bites to start, get comfortable with the attitude of the tool, after awhile it will surprise you at exactly how comfortable it becomes. DO NOT let the corners of any of your sweep gouges dig too far into the wood, you will snap the corners off!!! Report back and let us know how you are doing....

I am sure there are youtube videos out there also....

[LBlake]

Thank you - sounds like I am on the right track. Thanks for the tip about the corners... wood is still too hard to get them in there hardly at all anyway.

It's interesting to me how much control you get with the mallet tool. Nice.

[arfer1943]

I often use a mallet.

I have a rubber coated one for heavy duty work. The rubber "grips" the gouge, minimising slippage and wrist jar.

I have a small oak lead filled one for "tapping". I can concentrate on guiding the gouge and not on pushing it.