Timber Framers Guild Forums Tools Tool Forum My first attempt at a one piece mallet

Made from Lignum Vitae

Here it is still in the lathe with a fresh coat of Danish Oil.

It's about 13 inches long and 3.5 inches at the head...and a nice big handle. I have long fingers...and most store bought mallets are too small in the handle for my liking. No idea on the weight...I don't have a proper scale...but it's heavier than anything I've been able to find commercially. My guess is 4ish pounds

I'm going to leave the spur and center marks on it in case I decide I have to remount it and put it on a diet. It's a beast.

that is a beauty

Quigley,

Wow...first attempt? Looks waay too purdy to go mashing chisel handles. Very nice work, thanks for sharing.

Just remember when using it to strike against the rings and not parallel. I recently split a tropical hardwood mallet (from foxmaple.com), which is a similar design, because I picked it up and was hitting parallel. I did glue it back to together and it's still usable.

Your mallet looks very nice! Where did you get Lignam Vitae?

So you would hit on the lower face, the dark spot, of the mallet Brad? I've never used a mallet like that for timber work, but I do have one for my carving tools.

Looks very nice. LV is getting scarce, I'm told.

One of the local suppliers...they had two pieces in (this was the smaller of the two) Quite expensive.

I made another one out of Eastern Hophornbeam (iron wood) It's a small tree (just grows to a certain size and falls over) It's tough wood...and heavier than maple or elm...but because you can't set a free of heart wood piece...it checks. I doubt it will effect the structural integrity...I guess I'll find out once I use it.

I have some hard maple as well...I'll turn another one next week and see how they all stack up against each other.

I much prefer this style of mallet for timber framing...but that's probably because it's what I used on my original training course. I've tried everything (split head, poly head, dead blow) and I keep coming back to these...

I keep looking for a hornbeam tree where the branch grows straight out from the trunk forming a perfect handle and allowing pounding on the end grain. This would be the ultimate mallet.

I have used a number of these club type mallets. Most have worn away and cracked after a couple of frames. I do like my end grain mallet I have now. A chip knocked off the side reveals a very gnarly, woven grain, Lignam Vitae I am told. It is a well used mallet picked up at a yard sale, most likely older than I am.

Tim

Yes, hit against the dark spot, which is showing a full ring, or on the opposite side. Basically so you are compressing the rings together when striking. If you hit 90 degrees to that, you are more likely to split rings apart. I didn't even realize this until i broke my foxmaple club type mallet. It glued back together fine though with urethane glue and stainless steel band clamps. Yours looks almost too nice to use.
One thing, not sure what you finished yours with, but it looks like the foxmaple ones are coated in turners wax. Additionally in the handle area, they turned score marks every 1/2 or 3/4 inch to improve the grip. Something to think about. Check out their site to see the score marks in the handle.

I finished this one with Danish Oil...

I have turners wax as well...I'll try it on another one.

There is a method to soak or boil wood in oil to remove the water and replace it with the oil so that the heads won't dry out and crack.
I don't recall the exact process, but I can get the info and let you know when I have it.

I have one mallet, that the head is iron wood and has had this process done to it, and as of today, hasn't split yet.