Do you have a big mallet that you like?

[D_W]

Polling before I just take a large piece of beech and mortise a handle into it.

I am looking for something that ends up between 25 and 30 ounces, where my verawood mallet is. I just don't want to use something that is hard enough that it will beat up ash and beech handles as verawood does.

I do like the urethane mallets, but maybe not enough to sink almost 50 bucks into one at this point when I have 16/4 beech offcuts.

 

[Ttrees]

Sorry David I am no help to you
I had to look up verawood as I've never heard of the stuff .
Ive not got the chance yet to go read all the morticing threads but.....
I must ask, Is it a test that you're doing ? ....
as I've read that there's strong opinions about using the eastern style metal hammer for speed .

If not, why not get some hornbeam or similar ? ..
I guessing as I'm reading ,maybe you want to keep these chisels original ..I don't see that happening with the hand work you do though.
Thanks

 

[undergroundhunter]

I'm no help either, I don't like the feel or balance of any of the wooden mallets I've used, they always feel clumsy to me. I much prefer nylon faced hammers such as the thor range, my preference is a 32mm head with nylon on one side a rubber on the other (nylon for chisels rubber for assembly), I've never had any problems with ash, beech, boxwood, hornbeam or bubinga handles and some have taken quite a beating. Admittedly they don't look very traditional but give one a try you might just like it.

Matt

 

[AndyT]

You might find this thread useful

which-mallet-t90858.html

This is my selection - you can see that I like to have a choice.

They were all bought second hand, home made, or received as a gift.

I do also have a lignum vitae bowl, but I have not yet got round to converting it. Nor do I have a Thor nylon mallet, but I might support a UK manufacturer and get one.

It does make a difference when mortising - depending on size I will probably use the old beech one or the square headed oak one.

 

[D_W]

Sorry David I am no help to you
I had to look up verawood as I've never heard of the stuff .
Ive not got the chance yet to go read all the morticing threads but.....
I must ask, Is it a test that you're doing ? ....
as I've read that there's strong opinions about using the eastern style metal hammer for speed .

If not, why not get some hornbeam or similar ? ..
I guessing as I'm reading ,maybe you want to keep these chisels original ..I don't see that happening with the hand work you do though.
Thanks

Verawood - yes, just what lots of places sell over here and call it lignum, but it's not quite as hard. It's fragrant when you turn it, though, and the chips are hard and painful!

Not a test so much, just would like to keep the handles undamaged, but as you say, that may be futile. I like the urethanes because they are direct given how easy they are on handles, and they are indestructible. I use the verawood mallet to mortise plane bodies, but I use it on a hoop-handled chisel most of the time (it beats the life out of non-hooped handles). My hoop handled mortise chisel is a japanese one, but i like the verawood mallet better than japanese hammers - the noise they make when striking something hard is kind of annoying.

Turning a round beech mallet and soaking it in linseed oil to bring the weight up would be another option.

I agree on the standard mallets - I just don't like them that much - a bit clumsy feeling - handle's a bit too long.

 

[D_W]

You might find this thread useful

which-mallet-t90858.html

This is my selection - you can see that I like to have a choice.

They were all bought second hand, home made, or received as a gift.

I do also have a lignum vitae bowl, but I have not yet got round to converting it. Nor do I have a Thor nylon mallet, but I might support a UK manufacturer and get one.

It does make a difference when mortising - depending on size I will probably use the old beech one or the square headed oak one.

I like the nylon one, what does it weigh?

 

[MattRoberts]

I have the 600g Narex - nice mallet, but I'd probably go a shade lighter given the choice again

 

[Fitzroy]

Can't remember the details of the mallet, but there is a nice YouTube vid of Paul sellers making one.

F.

 

[AndyT]

D_W,

The big nylon one weighs 2lb 5oz / 37oz /1050 grams.

They are sold for stone masons eg here

http://www.averyknight.co.uk/sculpting- ... t-or-dummy

(I didn't pay that much!)

 

[Cheshirechappie]

My big beech mallet is 26oz without handle, and 34oz with handle. The head is 6" x 4 3/4" x 2 3/4", and the handle 1 3/4" x 7/8" at the head end tapering to 1 1/2" x 7/8" at the other end, and 16" long. The head has the usual tapered faces - 6" length at the top, and 5 3/8" at the bottom.

Hope that helps a bit.

 

[D_W]

Thanks, guys. I guess I'll either spring for the urethane 30 ounce mallet or make a short handled heavy headed mallet of some sort.

The most convincing thing I've seen in terms of mortising is this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7KaeQxE ... e=youtu.be

(go to the very end at 1:00 - this was a daimaker named Hisao. It's not relevant for us other than to see a heavy hammer with a short handle doing an extreme amount of mortising - that is macassar ebony that he is easily hogging out. The hammer is 6 pounds. I don't have the shoulder for half of that, but it is good demonstration of heavy work with a short handled hammer instead of a long-handled mallet. )

The rest of the dai making is here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3bYttKD ... e=youtu.be

But you get the idea from the first one.

 

[AndyT]

Richard Maguire, who used to make really good woodworking benches by hand, is very keen on a simple lump hammer.
Derek provided a link to a blog on it in the old thread I linked to.

 

[No skills]

I'm with Maguire, save the wooden mallets for assembly.

 

[D_W]

D_W,

The big nylon one weighs 2lb 5oz / 37oz /1050 grams.

They are sold for stone masons eg here

http://www.averyknight.co.uk/sculpting- ... t-or-dummy

(I didn't pay that much!)

Bit out of my price range, but an interesting design. I do like round head mallets - you never have to look to see anything and you don't have to align them to strike.

 

[Doug B]

I made my mallet admittedly from lignum vitae but the weight isn't provided by the lignum but the large steel bolt I joined the head to the handle with, it's only a small mallet the head being turned from half a bowling ball but it is surprisingly heavy.
The same method of construction could be used but with a "softer' timber for the head that wouldn't damage chisel handles but would still give the required weight.

 

[adrspach]

If you are on budget why not to drill few hockey pucks - weight can be adapted to your liking by number of the pucks and install them on a piece of stick.

 

[D_W]

I'm not really on a budget, I just don't want to spend too much on something that I can make nearly for free and without too much time expended.

 

[Racers]

I have several home made ones, some from Apple branches some from Hawthorn and two from bowling balls the bowling ball ones are in use usually.

Pete

 

[lurker]

I have loads of mallets mostly home made

On my round tuit list is turning a hollow head and filling with molten lead

Has anyone else seen that u tube where a bloke melts (in the microwave) loads of plastic milk cartons into a block and then saws a mallet head out of the lump. that rather appeals to me too.

I'd never use iron on a chisel: I'd be worried my dad would rise from his grave and beat the daylights out of me!

 

[D_W]

I saw the milk jug mallet, thought it was entertaining, too!

I think I've decided on either robbing a branch off of a tree at my parents' place so as to get the core, or just using a beech offcut and soaking in raw linseed oil. I like the idea of using something with a core in it, even if it cracks down the road. A lot of the old mallets I've seen in antique stores have a core or defect in them somewhere.

One of the reasons I want to save the handles on the OBM chisels I got is that they all have the core of a branch in them in the center. Someone was careful about that, and one of them was chosen from a small Y as it's got two cores at the top. I cut a couple of mortises with the verawood mallet last night, but I don't think they go any faster and they're 4 times as loud as urethane or a more "dead" wood like beech.